Moderator encourages attendance at Town Meeting
To the Editor:

Imagine yourself on Main Street in an average small to middle sized American community in Georgia or Kansas or Idaho - or almost anywhere outside New England. Imagine yourself telling people you met there that they could participate, directly and personally, in their municipal government as we do here. Not just go and watch, but speak, and vote, and even raise issues other than those put forward by the elected and appointed officials.

What reaction would you expect? Disbelief, most likely. Yet very soon, Westborough voters will assemble in the high school auditorium to personally decide and vote on such matters as the total appropriation for local schools, and the funding for their police, fire, and ambulance protection. Raise their voices on matters as small as whether or not to fund the Fourth of July celebration, or as large as establishing town-wide regulations that relate directly to the entire town's impact on the natural environment. To be, in short, members of the legislative body that acts as a check and a balance on the executive branch, and appropriates the monies that some months later will determine the property tax rate.

Elsewhere in the U.S. and in large municipalities here in Massachusetts, citizens must be content with calling or writing town council members or aldermen or whoever it may be, and hoping that they listen. It is a precious gift that we have, this open town meeting form of government, in which we literally "do it ourselves." It takes work to make it work, but for centuries Westborough and many of the surrounding communities have been making it work.

Will you be among those who will be a part of it? It all starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday May 17 in the Westborough High School auditorium. We'll break from 5 to 7 p.m., and go back at it Saturday evening and on the following Monday evening at 7 p.m. too, if necessary. I hope to see you at town meeting!
Joe Harrington
Moderator
Westborough
P.S. Not quite sure how it all works? Town Clerk Nancy Yendriga and I will hold our annual town meeting workshop Wednesday May 14 at 7 p.m., in the meeting room at the Westborough Public Library. Come by and take part in an informal give-and-take discussion of the mechanics of the whole process. Refreshments and informational handouts will be available.