Town meeting fun

Small-town politics meets big-time energy crisis

Posted by Katharine Wroth at 7:38 AM on 21 May 2008

Last night I went to the town meeting where I live, which -- well, if you've never lived anywhere podunk enough to have a town meeting, you're missing out. This one was just as I remember them from my childhood, though PowerPoint has replaced mimeographed pages: ambition, exhaustion, confusion, and the one crusty, bearded guy who has to argue every point.

After a presentation by the head of the municipally owned utility, a tall, thin audience member in a tan suit and lavender tie approached the microphone. "Can you tell me what your short- and long-term plans are for incorporating alternative energy into your portfolio, given rising oil prices and dwindling supplies?"

The utility guy paused.

"Do you mean, what energy-efficiency measures do we have in place that will help us buy less oil?" he asked hopefully.

No, said lavender tie, and repeated his dirty-hippie question.

The answer boiled down to this: Well, we use an awful lotta nuclear! Oh, and we might someday incorporate some kinda green portfolio, but people don't really want it, and it costs too much anyhow. So we'll just hope oil prices don't get too much higher.

I hate it when my reality collides with my optimistic, work-derived view of progress.

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Town Meetings... good times!

I love being face to face with someone in a town meeting that hasn't done their homework! And I'm teaching my students to love it too.

Our county meetings are televised, so I use them as a platform for local reform. Since I simply refuse to yield the floor (respectfully, of course!) to the other people there until my question has been answered, it really shows folks that people are serious about this stuff and that they had better get on the ball.

by BlackBear at 9:57 AM on 21 May 2008

interesting exchange

Good for tie-guy.

You live in one of the few towns in MA that is allowed to own its own municipal energy facilities, I guess. Most are precluded under a ridiculous dereg law passed in the 80s, but some smart towns figured out how they could opt out.

So it really could be up to your town meeting to decide to own another kind of electrical generation. The not so far away town of Hull could be your inspiration, with their wind generator(s) keep the town budget in the black.

Erik

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more

by Erik Hoffner at 11:15 AM on 21 May 2008

Don't be the guy

Town meetings are good, clean fun, but don't be the guy who gets up to rant interminably on every item with a public comment period. Sonoma County was graced with several of those when I was covering Board of Supervisors meetings, and there were two or three guys who would make the meetings much longer by always getting up to air old gripes in long, rambling monologues that the board were completely unequipped to deal with.

One of them in particular had a radical environmentalist bent but was, himself, completely bent. Those folks do us no favors, particularly when they insist that the board plant a fence of prickly pear all through the county.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

by PermieWriter at 11:49 AM on 21 May 2008

Some of us are trying

As the token treehugger on my small town planning commission, I am always trying to wedge a little more environmental awareness into the system. We have several very well-informed citizens who often show up, but after a while they tend to be dismissed. It's as if their viewpoint is known, so why listen? Since public participation is the lifeblood of democracy, this is heartbreaking. Please keep going to local political hearings, have your facts, speak politely, and respectfully remind the powers-that-be that they should be grateful for your involvement. It's all too easy to get complacent. Better yet, get yourself on a commission. It's hard work, but our side is underrepresented. You are needed.

by JanetT at 11:14 AM on 27 May 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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