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Highlighting News Stories for Our Town for the week of July 29, 2002 |
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Newsbreak for Walpole
Week of July 29 The Year 2002
A Year of Enormous Change
This past year brought to Walpole more changes in town government and town management in one year than ever before.
Let’s review the litany of changes and the current status of our town.
1. Override and the Budget …At the annual town election on May 1st of 2001, the voters rejected an override question to provide $3.7 million to balance the budget. This action stimulated another series of events. 2. Town Administrator …….. immediately after the results of the town election last year, the town administrator, Jim Merriam, resigned his position effective that very day. 3. Acting town administrator …… to stabilize matters, the selectmen appointed the assistant town administrator, Marjarita Doherty, to serve as interim TA until a new TA could be found and hired. 4. Schools ……. In July of 2001, the superintendent of schools tendered his resignation in order to pursue a new position in another town. The school committee then appointed Dr. Robert Couture to be interim superintendent until a new Superintendent could be found. Now, in July of 2002, the new superintendent has assumed her duties as the 3rd superintendent in these last 14 months. 5. Last summer, Fire chief Ken Erickson resigned to take a new position in New Hampshire. Quickly, again, the selectmen moved to appoint from within the ranks a new fire chief. 6. Second override…….. with the budget shortfall, the selectmen decide to seek the override again and set the question on the ballot on September 11 – the primary election. This second time, the voters approved the override and town meeting reset the budget at its fall session. 7. Police chief…… the chief of police, Joseph Betro retired last year and the selectmen promoted from within, appointing Lt. Stillman to be in charge. 8. On Dec. 1, Michael Boynton assumed the duties of town administrator. One of the first changes in the management of town hall was the consolidation of the offices of the selectmen and the Ta into a new space on the first floor. 9. In 2002, the town hired a town planner to begin to work with the planning board and others in town to review the master plan for growth and expansion.
Finally, we also saw a new precinct added to the representation of our town and the consolidation of polling places to two sites.
It has been a year of tremendous change and revitalization.
What will
2003 be like?
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