Shutesbury votes for impeachment

By Bob Dunn
Staff Writer

Published on May 11, 2007

SHUTESBURY - At Town Meeting on Saturday, Shutesbury became the latest town in Massachusetts to publicly call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Leverett passed a similar measure last week during its Town Meeting.

The motion calls for state and federal legislators to begin investigations and impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney alleging they lied and withheld information from Congress to justify the invasion of Iraq, federalized and deployed National Guard troops overseas, authorized unwarranted electronic surveillance, approved the use of torture against detainees, expanded the powers of the Executive Branch and spent billions on an "illegal" war when that money could have been used elsewhere.

A motion to pass over the measure over, which would have ended debate and prevented it from being passed, was defeated.

In addition to Town Meeting business, Shutesbury elected Kevin Fowler Hayes as moderator in one of the two contested races of the day.

Hayes received 214 votes, with his opponent, Michael Baines, garnering 175.

Incumbent Planning Board member Jeffrey Lacy retained his seat with 213 votes; write-in candidate, Linda Rotondi, who received 172 votes, will join him on the board.

According to Town Clerk Leslie Bracebridge, 420 of Shutesbury's 1,411 registered voters cast ballots, reflecting a turnout of just under 30 percent.

With no incumbent moderator to preside over the meeting, Penny Kim was nominated from the floor to moderate both the special and annual Town Meetings.

The day began with the Special Town Meeting, in which voters approved the use of $80,000 from the town's stabilization account to the Wyola Dam Project to cover permit costs that will be required before repairs can begin.

The total estimate for repair costs comes to $205,000.

The longest debate of the day clocked in at two hours and involved changes to Shutesbury's zoning bylaws that would allow the construction of wind turbine generators. The changes passed.

Despite passage of the zoning change, the proposal to construct a wind generator behind town hall had several critics, some of whom called the tower little more than a symbol of the town's commitment to cleaner energy, pointing out that carbon emissions could be cut much more for much less money by investing in lower-energy light bulbs for the town.

"Financially, (the wind tower) is a dog," said Hayes.

With little discussion, voters approved the town's $5.18 million operating budget for next fiscal year, approved $150,000 to repair and renovate the Highway Department facility and $78,000 to purchase a new backhoe.