Dear Editor,
I am submitting below the letter to the editor that I wrote dated 3/8/17 that appeared in the Town Crier so that the readers may compare what I said in order to compare it to Selectman Champoux’s letter which starts off “Selectman Champoux slams McCoy”. In a few days I will respond to Mr. Champoux’s letter which was printed in the Apple. Just FYI, Mr. Champoux — my rotary phone has a “send” button, which I am about to prove, and when you see my next letter responding to your claims that I am “pathetic”, I’ll make an upgrade to my neanderthal technology — I’ll buy a cordless phone with a special “send” button as well. Should I need to respond to another of your foolish letters, because you love to hear yourself talk, I’ll go all out and buy a smart phone and will send the message “OMG, Here’s what people say about you: “Mike Champoux loves to hear himself talk at selectmen’s meetings and goes on and on about nothing and keeps the meeting going on too long. LOL.” How’s that? Just because I choose not to use technology as my primary means of communication with residents, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use it. I simply prefer direct communication with people. I always have and always will and you can attempt to insult me all you want, but nothing is going to change. My method of communication has worked well for the 30 years I’ve been a local official, 27 of those years as an elected selectman. So to your insult I say “Go to hell. Don’t tell me how to talk to people.” How’s that for a communication?
Dear Editor,
If I were a registered voter and a tax payer, I’d be outraged at what took place this past week. I should be happy as an incumbent running for reelection to the Board of Selectmen, but I’m not.
What took place? Chairperson Judith O’Connell has been keeping potential candidates at bay by not announcing whether she was running for reelection or not. Finally on he front page of this newspaper, the Town Crier, dated March 1, 2017, “O’Connell won’t seek reelection.”
That was Wednesday, however, most of us did not get the Town Crier until Thursday on March 2, 2017. So what does that mean? If you’re like most Americans, you work Thursday 9-5; if you’re not too tired you’ll read the paper that night, now that you realize that Selectman O’Connell will not be running and you stand a shot to win a seat as a newcomer, you decide you want to run for selectman, you must take the day off on Friday, go to the Town Hall at 8:30 a.m., take out the necessary paperwork from the Town Clerk’s Office, go out and collect the signatures needed to appear on the ballot, bring it back to the Town Hall the same day by 5 p.m.
Selectwoman O’Connell’s announcement was made during deadline week to get nomination papers in. If Selectwoman O’Connell announced back in January that she wasn’t going to run, this would have given an opportunity for more folks to have taken out papers and run for the seat because there is one less incumbent running, giving at least an opportunity for a newcomer to win the seat.
There is no question that the other candidate Ed Loud is Selectman O’Connell’s and friends’ handpicked chosen candidate which I already knew about months ago. Mr. Loud took out his papers on Friday, February 17. On Monday, February 20 the Town Hall was closed along with other state agencies. The Town Crier went to print for Wednesday, February 22, 2017. The town wide distribution was Thursday, February 23, 2017. No news about seeking or not seeking reelection from Chairperson O’Connell–get the picture? I guess we’ll all find out on Wednesday March 8, 2017 if anyone went out on Friday, March 3 and returned the papers on the same day, which is the nomination paper return deadline.
There was never a secret whether or not I was running for reelection. In fact, I started my reelection campaign back on Tuesday November 8, 2016, the day of the presidential elections when I was at the Town Hall from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. campaigning for my selectman’s seat reelection on April 22, 2017. This was two months before nomination papers became available and I’m still campaigning two months after nomination papers were available , and I’ll continue to campaign for the next several weeks until the election.
There’s no secret–most of you have seen me outside of market Basket on Saturdays and Sundays, Wilmington Center during the week and outside of Mr. Ticket on many mornings.
What’s my point? This was nothing more than a dirty trick by Chairperson Judith O’Connell and her political cronies to stack the board and allow Ed Loud to come in through the back door and to get a seat on the Board of Selectmen. Many political newcomers may have been too intimidated to run against two strong incumbents, but may have been more comfortable running if there was at least one seat against one incumbent and an open seat up for grabs for which they may have stood a shot to have won fairly.
I’ll just say–stay tuned. We’ll find out the answer in this week’s edition of the Town Crier of who’s in and who’s out because the Town Crier is the weekly newspaper where the townies get most of their local news.
Selectman Michael V. McCoy
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