Lenox Selectmen candidates face off

By Claire CoxPrint Story | Email Story
Lenox select board candidates Roscoe Sandlin and Kimberly Reopell Flynn on Sunday faced off in a debate. (Photo By Claire Cox)
Roscoe Sandlin and Kimberly Reopell Flynn entered the final days of the race for a seat on the Lenox Board of Selectmen in a friendly exchange of views on May 3 over coffee and donuts shared with a dozen senior citizens at the Lenox Community Center. As adversaries, this is their third round in a political seesaw. Sandlin lost to Flynn last year when she won designation by 15 votes as the party’s candidate to serve for one year of an uncompleted term on the board. As a write-in candidate, Sandlin lost again, by a significant margin. Now it’s Sandlin’s turn. In March he won the Democratic nomination for the full three-year seat, to be filled on May 10, by five votes out of 195. So now Flynn is running as a write-in candidate. The hour-long meet-the-candidates session, in which the two Democrats were in basic agreement on a range of issues, ended with smiles and a handshake. “We are not enemies, we are adversaries,” Sandlin declared.” I don’t think that we necessarily do disagree very much,” Flynn said, “because we both want the best for Lenox.” Their exchange of views at the Community Center coffee hour began with agreement on why they are running for office. “I have been involved in local government in some form or fashion for well over 20 years,” Sandlin said, “and I believe in local government. I believe in town government, city government. That’s where the quality of life is, not the White House, not the State House, but right here in the neighborhoods — zoning, public safety, public housing and schools. It’s the leadership of the town that determines all that.” Flynn, tracing her progression from membership on the town’s Conservation Commission 11 years ago and several years on the Planning Board to the select board, agreed with Sandlin that local boards and commissions have „a huge effect on the quality of life. “I think that the reason I wanted to be a selectman,” she explained, “was that after working on all the other boards I really felt I wanted to move on, to try to work towards bringing all these boards together, to try to make them work together.” What do they hope to achieve if elected? Sandlin would like to bring the various boards into closer harmony and to encourage greater citizen participation in town government. “We don’t have the kind of participation that we should have,” he said. “We have a 25 percent voter turnout. We have 150 people who come to the town meetings. We have one candidate for each office. We should have people lined up to be candidates. Just getting people involved would bring a better process.” Flynn said she thought that Sandlin’s proposal was an excellent idea but added that the need for capital improvements is one of the most crucial areas she would like to address. “There is a lot of work that needs to be done on the sewer lines in this town,” she said. “There are a lot of homes that have failing systems. We need to work on developing a sewer system throughout this town that accommodates all of the residents.” A question arose about the departure of more and more young people from the town. “One of the things that we have to be concerned about as a town,” Flynn said, “is not only trying to keep our own kids here, but also I think that in some manner we have to address the need for — I hate using this term, people get really nervous about it — but some form of affordable housing. I can’t tell you how many of these industries around here, these resorts these spas, these hotels, the restaurants, the inns, depend on help. They need to have somewhere to live affordably.” “Actually,” Sandlin responded, “believe it or not, I agree with what she said. I think when you talk about affordable housing there are only two ways you can do affordable housing. One is density and the second is subsidy. It’s just not going to happen otherwise.” The panel also discussed a recently resolved dispute over town collection of hotel room taxes. Proposed legislation before the state legislature would provide for a $325,000 reduction in the amount of money the town will be required to pay back to Canyon Ranch for taxes that the state Department of Revenue overcharged the resort. “When the Board of Selectmen voted 3 to 2 in favor of submission of legislation to the legislature, my opponent voted against it,” Sandlin said. “I can’t take credit for that legislation passing, but I certainly supported it.” Flynn said her opposition to filing the legislation was based on information she had at that time. State representatives themselves were not in favor of the legislation, though they were willing to sponsor it. “There was not a tremendously hopeful feeling that this would be a successful endeavor,” she explained. “My feeling at that point of time was that our state representatives had a lot of issues on their plate, and they needed to ask for favors in various areas, and my reservation was that in going forward the legislators might have to call in favors that might be better served elsewhere. But also there was a concern that the powers in Boston might turn around and view Lenox as being greedy.” Asked if she now regretted her vote, she replied: “I think if I could go by what I do know now, yes, I would change my vote. But at the time I was voting with the information that I had, and I felt that was the right vote to make at that time. We make mistakes. We learn from our mistakes and we move on, and that’s how I feel.”
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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