Town Meeting - A Few Thoughts
Holliston, like most towns, is facing significant financial challenges that could affect not only services provided, but the spirit of the entire community. On some level, everyone is feeling the pinch of this difficult financial environment and certainly no one hopes to have increased taxes.
Sadly, at a time such as now when each and every department is facing challenges, we should look towards working and pulling together… not attacking. Ms. Theiler’s barrage of negative comments directed towards town employees during nights one and two of Town Meeting did nothing to promote an atmosphere of working together... rather it served to try pit one part of the community against another. From my perspective, it appeared to be mean-spirited, ill-intended and became disturbing to witness. While each and every town resident is entitled to their opinion, these comments are counter-productive and also come from an individual who sat on a Board that needed tax-payers money to bring in an outside consultant to mediate and resolve inter-personal conflict. Rather wasteful spending if we are going to go down that road.
As for Goodwill Park, the playground was last renovated back in 1991 and the equipment has reached the natural end of its life expectancy. It has certainly been maintained up to the level an older playground can be. Recently it underwent a thorough inspection by the town’s insurance company. A couple of maintenance recommendations were made and were implemented within 24 hours.
In 2006, when Mission Possible Holliston formed and approached the Park and Recreation Commission with the desire to rebuild the playground, no one anticipated that it would take so many years to fundraise enough money. We all know too well that what has happened globally in the financial world that has affected us locally and just as the fundraising efforts got underway, wallets began closing and the ability to give became increasingly challenging. People were no longer willing or able to give as generously as they once had, and it’s testament to the hard work and dedication of Mission Possible that they’ve been able to fundraise as much as they have. I offer this group of volunteers endless praise and they should be applauded for their tireless work and commitment to help create a playground in Holliston that will be truly accessible to all children of all ages with all disabilities.
As Mission Possible worked with the Park Department to develop a plan to renovate Goodwill Park, it was determined that it would be fiscally irresponsible, given the costs associated with purchasing new equipment, to purchase anything for a short term fix while a long term vision was beginning to take shape. During this time, the Park Department continued to monitor the safety of the existing equipment.
It is also important to note that over the past several years the Park Department has purchased many thousands of dollars in materials and supplies to maintain fields & play areas. We have installed new roofing, painted buildings, purchased picnic tables and other recreational supplies for fields and facilities. In the last year alone, at the Flagg Building where the Recreation Department runs programming, we upgraded the heating and sprinkler systems, painted and made some minor renovations to the building interior, and with a little help from some friends, were able to replace worn out carpeting in the main recreation space. Additionally, just in the last month, costly and extensive repairs were made to the Stoddard Park bath house facility…. all of this was accomplished and paid for through programming fees and not one single dollar came from tax payers.
In the past ten years, the Park Commission has overseen seen vast improvements. Our fields are more beautiful than ever. They are carefully maintained and provide a safe environment for residents to enjoy. We have seen much growth in recreational programming; with great attention being paid to detail in variety, affordability, summer staff development and customer service. Of course none of these things could have been accomplished without dedicated, enthusiastic and caring employees.
At the end of the day, a community is made up of its people, how they unite and the qualities they display in good times and bad. An argument could be made that the employees (including all of the board volunteers) of this town make up the backbone of our town. Our employees and board members give unselfishly of their time, provide support and lend assistance to so many people on so many different levels. It is important to remember that the people we serve, our colleagues, you and I, all deserve this as a minimum standard.
Tom Dumas
Holliston Park and Recreation Commissioner
Hear ye! Hear ye! Tom Dumas positions himself for future political dealings with Carl Demangela! Oops. Sorry. Wrong article. However, after reading this article, one has to wonder. What is Tom's true angle here? Does *anyone* trust him? Mr. Dumas' comments against Ms. Theiler's are unfounded and unjusitifed. Ms. Theiler has every right to comment as shes fit at the town meeting. It is her right as a legal tax paying citizen. If Mr. Dumas had issue with her comments, they should have been addressed at the meeting. Also, the backhand slap of Ms. Theiler's board needing money to resolve conflict, and positioning himself as the savior of the Parks and Recreation Department is at the very least pompous and one has to wonder what he really has up his sleeve. Why is he bringing this up now? If it were such an issue, why not bring it up back when this occured? Simply to save it and try and make himself look better than another town employee only makes him look like a slick and oily politician. Mr. Dumas closes by saying all employees and board members are the backbone of this town. Perhaps he is correct; however, every backbone also has slipped discs that cause exruciating pain. The town is experiencing pain and the cause of it are the teachers who *refuse* to take a pay freeze, when every other town employee worked with the town and declined a pay increase. In fact, the teachers are holding the town in an economic hostage crisis. But that issue will be decided on election day. Fortunately for us, we will no longer have to listen to Mr. Dumas in the near term gloat over what a wonderful job he did on the board as he positions himself for the next town position at the expense of attacking a citizen justified in her criticisms of town politics. But we will always have to wonder, when will that slipped disc come back......?
Jack Stranton | 2010-05-18 22:52:51
Thank you Tom. Well said. Clearly we have some difficult times to deal with, but we need to continue to go forward with a positive thought process that does not diminish the value of the work that was done before us. The future of this town and community is important for everyone. No one is immune from the economic downturn our state and federal governments have experience, but we need to be forward thinking as we move toward solutions to solve the fiscal crisis and develop opportunities for the successful future of Holliston
Donald Gray | 2010-05-15 10:33:33
Hear!! Hear!! So well-written and so on target, Tom. Thank you for taking the time to speak-out against negativism and hostility and to speak-up for the people who deliver services to this town. And as you point out, many are volunteers who never get paid and seldom get recognized. I think we need to apply your message to discussions about schools, teachers, administrators and budgets, too. The world economy is shifting; the problems are complex and require thoughtful discussion not anger and mean-spiritedness. We can't all agree but we can still be courteous and set a good example for children on how to behave when we do disagree. Thanks, Tom, for the message and for your service.
Mary | 2010-05-15 08:12:51