Shutesbury voters to take up WFCR issue, impeachment

By Bob Dunn
Staff Writer

Published on May 04, 2007

SHUTESBURY - When Shutesbury voters head to the polls on Saturday, they will be asked to approve a $5.18 million budget, select a new town moderator, support a resolution for more public interaction with radio station WFCR and to support the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Candidates will be running for a total of nine offices. The only one that is contested, according to a copy of the ballot, will be that for moderator.

Michael J. Baines and Kevin Fowler Hayes will be running to fill the seat left vacant by Moderator Michael Bloomfield.

Baines, a resident of Shutesbury since 1992, said in his candidate's statement that his experience facilitating meetings of business, fraternal and community organizations, as well as his experience working in front of large groups of people as a musician and master of ceremonies, would serve him well in the position, if elected.

In his statement, Hayes cites his background in industrial relations and human resources with an emphasis in arbitration, mediation and labor law, as well as his position as vice president within a family-owned business, as some of the qualifications that he would want voters to consider on Saturday.

The remaining uncontested races are for Board of Health, Cemetery Commission, Constable, library trustee, Planning Board, School Committee and Board of Selectmen.

The day is scheduled to begin with a Special Town Meeting, where voters will decide whether to fund the Wyola Dam Project with $80,000 from the town's stabilization account.

The annual Town Meeting will immediately follow and 28 separate warrant articles are scheduled for votes. One of those articles will ask voters to petition the University of Massachusetts to change the way that WFCR does business and transform the existing advisory committee into a Community Advisory Board that would hold open and public meetings, is more representative of the community it serves and has some say about programming decisions at the station.

The final scheduled article of the meeting will ask voters to pass a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, citing deceptive practices on the administration's part in justifying the war in Iraq, deploying National Guard troops overseas, warrantless wiretapping, approving the use of torture and spending billion of dollars on, what the article calls, "an illegal war" that could have been used elsewhere.

The Special and annual Town Meetings and Town Election will be held at the Shutesbury elementary school, beginning at 9 a.m. Polls will be open at the school from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.