Voters get another look at candidates

The secret is out.

Candidates for the board of selectmen have made clear the biggest issues facing the town is a huge budget shortfall of over $1 million, which may result in layoffs, and the ever looming government reform, which stems from lack of oversight within the building and development process of several subdivisions in town.

Incumbents Marge Kraskouskas and Bill Moffitt, former selectmen Michael Thompson, and Finance Committee member Mark Williamson fielded questions from the Free Press and Sun Chronicle, during a live forum in the North TV studios moderator by Peter Gay, Director of North TV.

Williamson, who was the top vote getter in the preliminary election Feb. 19, called on voters to make a choice of voting for incumbents, take a step back in time and vote for a former selectmen, or take a "new approach" and vote for him, unless they planned to keep on the road of "business as usual."

Williamson has been a long-time advocate for a change of the guard on the board of selectmen, offering to "renew credibility and accountability" at town hall, and that he brings a new outlook to the board of selectmen.

But Kraskouskas and Moffitt both have stood on their previous experience in town government. Kraskouskas, a six-term selectman, vows to work with other boards to get things done, and how to get manage toward a working budget. "I know what it's like to pinch pennies," she said. "I know how to live within the budget."

Moffitt, a former treasurer/collector and coming off his first term on the board, has also been touting his experience, sitting on the board which hired a town administrator and MIS Director. He, too, has been a proponent of government reform, including combining the town clerk's office and elections department into one.

Thompson doesn't see the need to reform government quite to the extreme of changing the form of government. Thompson has stated that any reform comes by way of the voter, and people they elect.

"This is a community where nothing is impossible," Thompson said. He is a finance committee member, a member of the former personnel board, DPW and has a handle on dealing with budgets. "I know this town," he said. He also aims to help and protect the older residents of the town. "The elderly need to be looked after, like our children need to be looked after."

Candidates will be allowed to get a lot more personal when they field questions from one another during a televised debate moderated by Gay Monday night at 8 p.m.

The general election is April 1. Polls at NAHS are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.