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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, JUly 14, 2023 Page 13 The Sounds of Saugus By Mark E. Vogler Good morning, Saugus! For all of you civic-minded citizens of Saugus who have thought about doing a couple of years of public service for your town, here’s your opportunity. Nomination papers for public offices in the Nov. 7 Town Election become available in 10 days (July 24) at the Town Clerk’s Office. Saugus needs hardworking, conscientious individuals who care about their hometown as candidates for Town Meeting, the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee and the Housing Authority. If you have never run for office before, Town Meeting would be a great start. There are 50 seats – five for each of the precincts – in the local legislative body responsible for passing the budget and zoning amendments. All you need is 10 certified signatures of registered voters who live in the precinct where you plan to be a candidate, and you have until Sept. 19 to get those signatures to the Town Clerk’s Office. If you want to run for the five-member Board of Selectmen, the five-member School Committee or the Housing Authority, you need to obtain 50 signatures. If you run and fail to get elected, chalk it up as experience and run again in two years. Treat it as a learning experience. If you keep running, you might get elected for some office, particularly for one of the 50 Town Meeting seats. Consider this: Everybody who ran for Town Meeting two years ago got elected without opposition in half of the 10 Saugus precincts (1, 2, 3, 6 and 7). That means there are not enough candidates to make it a viable election in half of the Saugus precincts. Town Meeting is one of the important building blocks of local government in Saugus. If there is a concern in a neighborhood, the residents would approach one or all of their Town Meeting members. The Town Meeting members would then approach the Board of Selectmen. That’s the best way of addressing neighborhood concerns. So, if you care about your neighborhood and the town and have the time and inclination, run for Town Meeting. If you are worried about the future of public education in Saugus, run for School Committee. If you think you have the expertise and knowledge of local government and the way it works or should work in Saugus, run for selectman. This is a town election year. So, step up and do something for your community. Apathy in Precinct 7? Looks like there’s a leadership void in Precinct 7. For the first time since we began doing “Saugus Over Coffee” forums back in January, we had a situation where none of the five Precinct 7 Town Meeting members appeared. Bob Palleschi gets a pass because he had a last minute medical appointment after spending time with me recently in an interview about Precinct 7 issues. Stefano D’Anna emailed me a few days before the forum to let me know he wouldn’t be able to make it. I invited him to email me a statement, sharing some of his views. But he declined. Town Meeting Members John Chipouras. Stephen F. McCarthy and Michael J. Paolini never responded to email invitations and letters mailed to their home with two weeks’ notice. Sure, I was disappointed that we got zero participation from Precinct 7 Town Meeting members. But that does reflect on the lack of interest in meeting citizens within their own precinct at the Saugus Public Library over a cup of coffee. But I can tell you that most of the seven Precinct 7 residents who showed up at the Saugus Public Library on Monday were rather miffed that the representatives weren’t interested in showing. And well they should be miffed. One resident said she won’t be voting for any of the members if they decide to run for reelection. What would be nice is if five new candidates surfaced in Precinct 7 to run for the Annual Town Meeting. But shame on those Town Meeting members who thought it wouldn’t be worth their while to meet residents in their precinct on a Monday night in July. But the show did go on. We had some productive participation from the sevPASTA DINNER: Pictured from left to right: Alanah Sullivan, Naomi Tarantino and Amelia Clark, with teammates behind them, enjoyed some camaraderie and pizza last Friday (July 7) at Prince Pizzeria. They met the next day for a meet at Serino Stadium. They are part of a group of young athletes from Chris Tarantino’s summer track camp who will be headed down to Cranston, Rhode Island, tomorrow (Saturday, July 15) for a region-wide competition. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate by Chris Tarantino) en Precinct 7 residents who attended the forum. They identified issues of concern to them. And there were two selectmen sitting in the room – Board of Selectmen Vice-Chair Debra Panetta and Selectman Mike Serino – taking notes. And they addressed a number of the concerns raised by the residents of Precinct 7. So, in spite of the lack of interest by Precinct 7 Town Meeting members (three of them who never even answered the invitations), it was a very productive session. “Saugus Over Coffee” For those unfamiliar with the “Saugus Over Coffee” forums, they are cosponsored by The Saugus Advocate and the Saugus Public Library. The primary purpose is to give citizens in each of the town’s 10 precincts an opportunity to voice their concerns about top issues in their respective precincts. It also gives them an opportunity to meet their Town Meeting representatives and chat over a cup of coffee or tea. Town Meeting members will benefit by getting to know more about concerns in their precincts. Viewers of the forums videotaped by Saugus TV will also get to learn a little about the history or interesting things about the precinct being featured each month. One of my major hopes for the forums is that it spurs an interest for citizens to become potential candidates for Town Meeting in this fall’s town election. The public should keep in mind that there was a paucity of candidates for Town Meeting seats in the town elections back in 2021. In five of the 10 precincts, only five candidates ran for the five seats. That means half of the 50-member body was elected without competition. Stay tuned for more information as “Saugus Over Coffee” continues. Here is the remaining schedule: Precinct 8 – August 14 Precinct 9 – September 11 Precinct 10 – October 23 Please check with The Saugus Advocate or library for any changes in dates. Residents can check the programming guide on the station’s website (www.saugustv.org) for dates and times. A video of the forum will also be available for viewing on the station’s vimeo page within a day or two after the event – www.vimeo.com/saugustelevision. C.H.A.R.M. Center is open The C.H.a.R.M. Center will be open during the summer to residents on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The site is located behind the Department of Public Works at 515 Main St. Stickers are required to gain seasonal access to the site. Stickers may be purchased for $25.00 at the Department of Public Works (DPW) located at the Compost Site when making your visit to the Compost Site. The Town accepts checks only for payment of the $25. No cash will be accepted. Kindly bring a check when visiting. Thank you! Compost site stickers must be permanently placed on the lower left corner of residents’ automobile windshields. Vehicles registered out of state are not permitted. Yard waste must be disposed of in brown compost bags or open containers. The Town will accept grass clippings, leaves and brush. As in years past, no branches or limbs larger than three inches in diameter are permitted. Residents may call Scott Brazis at the Solid Waste and Recycling Department at 781-231-4036 with questions. Some Special “Shout Outs” We didn’t receive any nominations for “Shout Outs” this week. So, I will use my editorial discretion to nominate the seven Precinct 7 residents who took the time to show up for Monday’s “Saugus Over Coffee” forum. Hats off to Susanne McNamara, Rose Desmond, Corinne D’Apolito, Sandy Sarno, Jack THE SOUNDS | SEE PAGE 14

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