Please be aware that my fellow Select Board. members are working hard to unseat me, as well as others who believe I'm holding the town back from development.  Your vote for me is doubly important given the intent of current leadership.  I welcome healthy changes for Pepperell.  Residential growth, other than affordable housing,  in my opinion, will compromise the quality of life we cherish. 

Dear Pepperell families,

Driving tractors and filling hay barns, chasing cows and growing asparagus and potatoes is a very different challenge than the work of a Select Board member. In the past six years I have learned so many lessons on how to serve my community and I am proud to have accomplished many of my goals. I have earned the trust of my supporters, and I'm happy to be  alignment with Pepperell voters who need town leadership that understands their financial and quality of life needs.  Another term, given my learned experience, and passion to care, can continue to be of real value to the citizens of Pepperell.

Being an elected municipal officer opened doors for me at both the State and Federal level where I could advocate for policy changes that served Pepperell and all of Massachusetts small towns. One effort led to a report on how small towns with staff shortages can't apply for grants that would both address climate change and lower operating costs for towns.  Recommendations from that report include adding staff resources to our regional planning agencies, (RPAs).  I intend to continue the work to improve our RPA's resources  and expand their ability to help Pepperell's planning work. More immediately I'll be asking the Climate Change Committee to apply for a Federal technical assistance grant that will give us the expertise to solarize town properties, reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our energy costs.

Enjoying a close working relationship with Senator Ed Kennedy and now Representative Margaret Scarsdale and Senator Vanna Howard helps me to continue work at the legislative level for both policy changes and funding opportunities for Pepperell.  Senator Kennedy conferred with me on his idea that farms in North Middlesex County needed a commercial kitchen and food hub in order to protect those agricultural economies and improve our local food supplies.  That led to $750,000 in earmarks, half of what he hoped to supply to Pepperell to match a similar operation in Greenfield MA.  The food hub is planning a grand opening this June and area farmers are depending on food aggregation and storage at Growing Places operation at Pepperell Place. I continue to seek funding to help the Peter Fitz Collaborative open its community kitchen doors.  I've asked Senator Howard to consider another earmark for the kitchen and have appealed to the Massiello Foundation for help.

It is very heartening to see "Right to FarmCommunity" signs going up on our town road borders.   A recent dispute with our Board of Health brought forward many families defending their backyard and commercial farms .  Again and again some town leaders work to add residential growth in Pepperell at the cost of our rural qualities.  I understand, but protest, the myth that "if you're not growing, you're dying."  Resilience, for me, means living within your means, as a farmer learns that so much land can support only so much farming.  Pride in our rural qualities needs a defense from developers and I take pride in that work.

I do support, and am a member of the Affordable Housing Trust, (AHT), working to expand housing for low income and workforce families.  The best answer, but most challenging, I propose, is solving the income equality problem that has shrunk the middle class almost out of existence.  In our national economy of growing wealth of the rich, everyone should be fairly compensated for their hard work.  They aren't as class rule , again, bullies workers.  In the mean time, Pepperell can improve zoning for more dense housing in the down town area and improve appeals to developers to consider building in that area. The AHT now has funding to assist in that work and is seeking those opportunities.  Our farmlands and conservation areas also need protections.  I'm looking for answers on how the State policy makers are advising on how to reconcile the housing and farming crisis in the Commonwealth.  I've posed the question to our regional planning agency and await their response. Both are essential in improving our safety and quality of life.

I do welcome the criticism that I'm a socialist.  I am proud to work for everyone "having enough". I have lived and worked and benefited  as an entrepreneur and capitalist in my farm life.  I have a very strong work ethic and enjoy the rewards of my hard work.  But I have been far luckier than most, given the advantage of inheriting my grandfathers farm.  While having achieved a professional "white collar" level of education and work as a clinical therapist I am most proud of my blue collar values as a farmer.

Building community, enjoying my friends and neighbors, opposing and humoring my opponents, brings joy, colored with frustration, to my life in Pepperell.  Thank you to all who have supported me or criticized me.  I would like to complete my Select Board efforts in the next three years and hand off a better town to a successor and the generations that will follow me.

p.s. I do like free things and have a weakness for picking up "free " side of the road treasures!