Lloyd Mendes for Somerset Planning Board

04/11/2025

Somerset neighbors: Town elections are THIS Monday, April 14, from noon till 8 PM at the High School. I attended both candidate debates (sponsored by town Republicans and Democrats) and have attended just about every town meeting since living in Somerset. I've warned my neighbors of our financial stress since the closure of the power plant and the loss of Prysmian's hoped-for, $200,000,000 cable factory. So, I have strong feelings on who should represent us in these hard times.

Mike Pasternak stands out among all the candidates for office this year. Mike is running for Regional School Committee, but his frank approach to the budget is a beacon for all town officials: He does not pander to us. Mike chaired the Town's Advisory & Finance Board for many years and understands local government finance. I hope that more candidates for elective office follow Mike's example and first serve a tour of duty on the A & F Committee.

Second, I strongly endorse John Ventura for Somerset School Committee (the K-8 schools). "Huh?!" you ask? Yes, Mr. Ventura is supported by Save Our Bay, a neighborhood clique I strongly resisted when it opposed Prysmian's investment at Brayton Point. But Mr. Ventura (whom I've never met) speaks with evident feeling about fair educational opportunities for all our kids and ... financial constraints. As a manager of the school resource officer (i.e. police) program in Fall River schools, he speaks about bullying with knowledge. I would be proud to be represented by a fellow citizen of his caliber in town government.

Third, I support Joe Bednarik for re-election as Sewer and Water Commissioner. It's not just that Joe's opponent is a one-issue, anti-fluoride candidate. Joe has spoken seriously with me about the need for other local boards to cooperate and monitor the treatment of wastewater from businesses. This is the kind of technical, detailed, and -- yes -- geeky focus we need in Water Commissioners.

Fourth, although Ed is likeable and well-spoken, the neighborhood group he and his wife lead, Save Our Bay, fights against business investment across Town. They opposed Prysmian's $200 million dollar investment at Brayton Point, their backyard. But they also fought National Grid's development on Brayton Point Rd. They opposed smaller businesses as well, objecting to a new Chick-fil-a, a new car wash, and now a new oil-change shop, all to be located on busy, commercial Route 6. Ed strongly defended the old coal plant at Brayton Point when he drew a hefty salary there, but now he's an environmentalist? I dunno if I believe that. I'm not sure what Ed's personal agenda would be on the Planning Board, but I'm not willing to risk the Town's financial future. Therefore, I strongly support the re-election of Billy Raposa to the Planning Board.

Lastly, although Todd is an impressive candidate and speaks eloquently about controlling the Town's budget, I'm afraid that he'd use his power on the Board of Selectmen for revenge firings, particularly in the Police Department, where he retired just last year. He needs a cooling-off period before running for a board that controls Police staffing. Todd might make a better candidate for School Committee or Board of Assessors, where he wouldn't control hiring and firing. However, I'm also worried that Todd would use his power on the Board of Selectmen to harass other town officials, as Save Our Bay-Brayton Point did the last time they controlled the Town. I'm particularly worried about Save Our Bay's harassment of our elected town clerk and Selectman Smith's attempt to replace her with a political appointee. For all those reasons, I support independent Tom Mello for Board of Selectmen.

Those are just my personal choices for a few races. If you want more info on all the candidates, check out this article in the Herald News:
https://www.heraldnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/03/31/somerset-2025-town-election-ma-candidates-for-selectmen-school-committee/82635533007/

I'll respect and recognize whomever the voters choose next Monday: That's how we do it in a democracy.

See you at the polls, neighbors.

06/27/2022

My grandmother never finished grammar school in her homeland and never learned to read English in her adopted land. Maybe because of that, she never confused herself with words like "philosophy" or "socio-economics." Still, she ably debated these subjects with a sophomoric grandchild (whose identity must remain confidential because of his age at the time).

Because she grew up on an island off the coast of Africa before widespread electrification, she learned as a child to manage summer heat in the home. She proudly explained how she cooled her Massachusetts home without air-conditioning. Overnight, she opened all the windows, letting in cool night air. In the morning, she closed the windows and pulled the heavy curtains, trapping the cool air inside. When she and my grandfather returned home in the evening after a sweltering day in the family grocery, their home was cool and inviting.

National Grid is carrying on Grandma's tradition. (See https://www.nationalgridus.com/MA-Home/Energy-Saving-Programs/ConnectedSolutions) It offers you a rebate if you install a remotely controlled thermostat in your centrally cooled home and then allow National Grid to remotely program that thermostat on the hottest summer days when temperatures are predicted to spike. On these days, your thermostat will pre-cool your home in the morning so that you can reduce your air conditioning in the afternoon. (You keep ultimate control of your thermostat and can manually adjust it at any time.)

Let's be clear: National Grid's new initiative is not about greenhouse gases or climate change. If you simply shift the hours that you use electricity on a few, peak-demand days in the summer, you'll still burn about the same amount of fossil fuel over the year.

National Grid's new initiative is about reducing peak demand on the hottest summer days, when too many people want too much electricity, all at the same time. Although our utilities can generate enough electricity for our needs almost the entire year, they are overwhelmed by our demands on a few, peak-demand days in summer and winter.

As a commodity, electricity is not much different than toilet paper. There is more than enough to meet our daily, average needs. But when everyone rushes to the store to buy it on the same day, the truckers can't truck it in fast enough, and grocers can't stock the shelves fast enough. When we all rush to use more electricity at the same time, power plants rush to buy more natural gas, pushing up the price as they bid against each other for a limited pipeline flow. Longer term, peak demand for electricity leads to demands for more gas pipelines and more power plants. Worse still, peak demands can overwhelm our daily fuel supply or power generation capacity, forcing utilities to ration electricity: Brownouts.

Don't laugh off the risk of brownouts just because they haven't happened here yet. Brownouts have happened in California (https://www.utilitydive.com/news/california-releases-final-root-cause-analysis-of-august-rolling-blackouts/593436/) and are predicted to happen again (https://kesq.com/news/2022/05/16/were-worried-ca-power-officials-warn-extreme-heat-could-bring-blackouts-this-summer/). The operator of our electrical grid, ISO-New England, warns that we are at risk of brownouts if we don't increase fuel supplies or reduce peak demand for electricity (https://commonwealthmagazine.org/energy/iso-study-warns-precarious-energy-future/).

There's another reason for us to join National Grid's effort to reduce our peak demand for electricity in our own homes: Strengthening America's backbone. Tiny Ukraine fights for its freedom with our help, but Russia has leverage over us because of its natural gas and oil supplies. If energy prices spike or if our power is rationed in rolling brownouts, we may go wobbly. You and I can help strengthen the nation's resolve by using strategic energy moderately, sensitive to world markets and world affairs.

National Grid offers you a convenient, automatic way to limit energy use at the household, regional and national levels. Take a moment to look at their offer: https://www.nationalgridus.com/MA-Home/Connected-Solutions/Thermostat-Program. Then decide if it meets your family's needs. If it does, act now. Your Vovo would be proud.

05/24/2022

A tribute to Somerset Acting Town Manager Mike Gallagher:

Somerset's Annual Town meeting had some good moments:
- a new playground at Waterfront Park https://fallriverheraldnews-ma.newsmemory.com?selDate=20220524&goTo=A03&artid=1

- replacing a public safety communication tower
https://www.facebook.com/105610194532890/posts/pfbid0t5GvDiVxbyArTHqpgLEW2Ln8UDQq3va6hx562hfs31vxPqE6YnTtCwqfka3pe15Rl/

- a new capital improvements stabilization fund
https://www.facebook.com/105610194532890/posts/pfbid0osxNmQbC2s2Yjgf84BKcjACbShKbtVy24XXVxmdXXyk2QKFfGHDQhEVcV7fwDvmHl/

But for me, the most important moment happened before the annual meeting started (scroll to 11.28 minutes of the SATV video, https://youtu.be/OJ3iGH7AoA8

Our acting, temporary town administrator, Mike Gallagher, distributed a spreadsheet showing how much money the Town had in various funds and how the various articles proposed to spend that money. Throughout the meeting, he reminded voters how much money remained uncommitted in our biggest pot of money, Undesignated Surplus.

It was like seeing how much money you had in the bank before buying a new house, new car, and expensive dinner. What a concept!

Undesignated Surplus is hard to say; we usually call it "free cash." It's cash, all right, but it comes to us unexpectedly and cannot be counted on in the future. Some of it is money that department heads didn't spend from their authorized budgets in the previous year. Some of it is tax revenue that exceeded expectations. Some of it is just money that comes to the town from unexpected, one-time sources.

Mike's point was that we shouldn't depend on "free cash" to balance our day-to-day expenses. Instead, we should salt away unexpected windfalls to pay for long term, flexible needs.

While Undesignated Surplus is hard to say, it's easy to spend. We've always spent this money freely at town meeting, feeling that it's well, ... free. Mike was counseling us to stop thinking of undesignated surplus as "free cash."

We'll soon be facing hard times, a perfect storm of recession, high interest rates and unfunded mandates from the state and federal governments. Let's prepare for the storm by following the wise counsel of our temporary, acting Town Administrator. Let's discipline our town's appetite in hard times just as we discipline our families' appetites. Let's save our "free cash" windfalls for long-term needs.

And let's all thank Mike Gallagher for his short but dedicated service to the Town of Somerset. Long after he has gone, I will stand at town meeting and say, "Well, you remember what Mike Gallagher said about free cash back in 2022..."

05/09/2022

SRPEDD Commissioner

I have no right to complain that Somerset's Selectmen replaced me as commissioner to the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD). Neither do I have a right to object that both of Somerset's SRPEDD commissioners represent the same neighborhood group, Save Our Bay-Brayton Point. The Selectmen and the Planning Board may appoint whomever they please as their commissioners: That's the democratic process.

I do complain that the Chairman of the Board of Selectman implied that I wasn't a diligent SRPEDD commissioner. Chairman Smith is quoted in the Sentinel saying that I never emailed him. He's right: I never reported directly to him because the SRPEDD commissioner reports to the Town Administrator, who reports to the Selectmen. That's called the "chain of command." I cc-ed the one selectman working with federal funding issues (Kathy Souza most recently and Holly McNamara before that) but I sent my reports and took my marching orders from my superior officer in the chain-of-command, the Town Administrator.

When reporting SRPEDD issues to the Town Administrator (and, when relevant, to department heads, town boards, school superintendents and local businesses) I did not just lazily forward emails. I researched each topic and forwarded it with my recommendations and warnings. Paid or not, that's the commissioners' job.

My work at SRPEDD was good for the Town. I facilitated the introduction of the Town Administrator and Water Department to the federal infrastructure funding agency, EDA. I continued over the years to support this relationship, reminding town officials of deadlines and unanswered queries. The relationship with EDA continues to bring us federal funds (see the list of grants below).

I certainly do not take credit for all the state and federal grants listed below: The real work was done by our professional Town Planner, Nancy Durfee, and by our full-time, experienced Town Administrator, Richard Brown. My role was to inform them of opportunities. When the Town lost these two experienced professionals, we stopped applying for new federal grants: In spite of my monthly nagging of former Selectman Souza (who I assume passed on my warnings to Chairman Smith) the town missed out on federal ARPA funds. I fear that we will also lose millions of federal dollars available in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. A town needs diligent, competent officials on every board and in every public position.

In order to show Chairman Smith that I worked diligently and competently as commissioner, I'm forwarding him the SRPEDD-related emails that I sent since Smith began serving on the Board. Anyone may request these official emails from the Selectmen in a Freedom of Information Act request: They are public information. In order to help the public identify emails of interest, I have listed the subject headings (see the snapshots below).

Chairman Smith also complained that I did not attend Board of Selectmen meetings, and he's right: I never attended because I didn't need to. My supervisor, the Town Administrator, attended. And anyway, can you blame me for not spending every Wednesday evening with Mr. Smith? Wasn't I already working hard enough for our Town by attending and reporting on monthly SRPEDD meetings? The weekly tasks of a selectman don't interest me. At age 70, I'm happy to serve our Town in smaller, less demanding jobs like Planning and SRPEDD.

We should all wish success for the Selectmen's newest commissioner to SRPEDD, Mr. Kardel. We need diligent and competent commissioners who will hustle to bring state and federal funding to our Town. We have a lot of rebuilding to do.

LIST OF GRANTS:

During my five years as Somerset's SRPEDD commissioner, I facilitated the following grants (all implemented through SRPEDD) from the US Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA):
⦁ Wastewater treatment facility upgrades: $2.0ML EDA America Coal Communities 2017. (Implemented as ACC1 - Planning & Project Admin; ACC2 - Water & Wastewater equipment; ACC3 - Application for Water & Sewer Infrastructure; see SRPEDD report 2019-04-25; see also EDA Wastewater Inflow & Infiltration study application, SRPEDD report 2020-12-02)
⦁ Master Plan Update: $150,000 EDA Technical Assistance. (SRPEDD report on EDA visit 2017-07-19)
⦁ Municipal Assistance grant (EDA applications for Somerset-Swansea sewer district) (SRPEDD report 2018-04-25)
⦁ Municipal Assistance grant (EDA application for Water & Wastewater improvements) (SRPEDD report 2018-12-05)
⦁ EDA Notice of investment award by Dept. Commerce: $330,566 (SRPEDD report 2018-09-26)

05/02/2022

I'm excited about the part we in Somerset, in Greater Fall River and along the entire South Coast will play in the new offshore wind industry. Do you see Somerset in the aerial image of Mount Hope Bay? We're in the middle, at the bottom of the image.

The offshore wind industry will bring tax revenue to our town and jobs to our region. It'll create opportunity for our small businesses to grow bigger. It's good for us.

Mayflower Wind will use a small part of Brayton Point to build a converter station and to connect its offshore wind power to the electric grid onshore. It will pay Somerset a modest property tax. More importantly, it will make possible larger investments on- and off-shore, creating opportunities for our young workers and small business people. It's good for us.

Follow the link to register for Mayflower Wind's virtual online tour on Wednesday, May 4 at 6:30 PM.

A 3D Virtual Tour of the SouthCoast, MA Project 6:30 – 7:30 PM

04/29/2022

Mixed Use Zoning:
I had my first controversial vote on the Planning Board last week.
I voted with the majority to recommend four new, market-rate apartments on the second floor, above Sweet as Pie, at 1045 County St. (in the building formerly occupied by Annie's Boutique). Here's the link to the meeting (our discussion begins at about 29 minutes into the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBT8U1AyP0M

This big building squeezed onto a tiny lot leaves no room for off-street parking. That was the controversy. However, a majority of the Board gave conditional approval: The developer must still convince the Zoning Board of Appeals that he has secured the off-street parking required by our bylaws. He may lease or buy the spaces; that's his concern. The Town's only concern (in my opinion) is to not harm the public with more demand for on-street parking in congested Pottersville.

Flexibility is necessary in these changing times. Brick-and-mortar businesses can't survive on retail trade alone. Rents from apartments on the second floor can make a struggling retail property more profitable. That's called "mixed use," and our bylaw allows it by special permit in business zones and in Slades Ferry Overlay District. You can see for yourself by searching "mixed use" in the Town Zoning Bylaws at:https://www.townofsomerset.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif3821/f/uploads/zoning_by_law_amended_atm_8.20.20.pdf

Market-rate housing is good for surrounding businesses: Apartment dwellers who can afford market rents can also afford to drop in at a nearby restaurant.

But that's looking at it from downstairs, from the retail business's perspective. Look at it also from upstairs, from the apartment dwellers' perspective. Four new, working families will find housing within walking distance to the High School, iconic restaurants, the Library, Pottersville School sports fields and Pratt Beach. They'll mingle with long-time residents and quickly integrate into our town.

By being flexible with developers who want to build market-rate housing, we'll help solve the housing shortage. We'll also help ourselves by attracting new, wage-earning workers, taxpayers and voters to our town. Flexibility is good for us all.

You can watch Planning Board meetings live on Somerset Access TV Channel 15 (for the schedule, see https://www.facebook.com/somersetaccesstv/).
If you've cut the cable, you can still see past Planning Board meetings on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/somersetaccesstv/videos.

Or, you can simply walk down to the Town Office Building for our next scheduled meeting on Tuesday, 10 May (they're usually held on a Tuesday at 6 PM and usually in the public hearing room on the first floor of the Town Office Building, across from the Town Clerk's office). The Selectmen recently changed how meetings are posted, so you'll need to keep your eyes open: Watch the Town website for meeting announcements at https://www.townofsomerset.org/calendar.

If you're forgetful like me, you can register online for emailed e-alerts of up-coming public meetings at https://www.townofsomerset.org/subscribe.
Planning is important.

Lloyd Mendes
Somerset Planning Board member

04/09/2022

Are your property taxes high? Mine are.

When the Brayton Point power plant closed, the Town of Somerset lost half its tax revenue and the Water Department lost nearly half its revenue for industrial water. We've been getting help from the State, but that's ending. Without taxpaying industries, homeowners will pay more for schools, police, fire department, and expensive services like water and sewer.

I want to serve on the Somerset Planning Board and welcome business investments in our industrial zones. Only big industries can pay the kind of taxes we need to support our expensive, city-like services. And not polluting industries like the old power plants but industries that are environmentally regulated by state and federal authorities.

Are you curious to see how I propose to welcome environmentally regulated, tax-paying businesses?
Check out my page at:
https://www.facebook.com/MendesSomersetPlanningBoard/.
Watch all the candidates respond to questions from George Austin on the SATV YouTube page at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgtB_Vuw8CU
Compare each of the candidates for town office on SATV Channel 9 throughout the day. If you've cut the cable (those rising prices again) you can see all the candidates on Youtube at:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL34CDZ1DV7_QHasMdO2XWq-RDVD_MhGv_

One way or another, you gotta decide. Town Elections are this Monday, April 11.

Vote for me, Lloyd Mendes, for Somerset Planning Board. Together, we'll welcome business investment and get help carrying the tax burden.

Vote this Monday, April 11, between noon and 8 PM at the High School.
Thank you

04/06/2022

Interest rates aren't very interesting... until your taxes go up because of them.

The tax impact of the new Middle School didn't look so bad last year when interest rates hovered around 3 percent. The architect was really conservative and even considered an extreme interest rate of....... 3.5%.

That was then; this is now. Interest rates are climbing faster than anyone imagined a year ago. That's not a surprise to anyone trying to buy a home: Buyers are hustling, trying to lock in historically low interest rates.

But the Somerset Board of Selectmen didn't hustle. Voters approved a new middle school nearly a year ago, when interest rates were ridiculously low. Somerset, with a very good credit rating of Aa2, could've gotten a low-cost loan at that time.

But that was then; this is now. Because Chairman Lawless and his two friends on the Board ignored warnings to lock in a low interest rate, we taxpayers will pay more for debt service on our $51.3 million loan.

Why am I, a candidate for Planning Board, grousing about the impact of rising interest rates on property taxes? Because I have a solution. It's not a perfect or long-term solution, but it can protect us taxpayers for at least a few years while we try to attract investors to rebuild the tax base that was lost when the power plants closed.

Over the years, the Town has accumulated many small, unused lots worth a lot of money if sold in the open market. We didn't bother with this chump change when we were flush with power-plant taxes. But that was then; this is now. We need the money locked up in those small, scattered, and unused lots.

The Planning Board can list all our unused lots, check with other town boards and offices for any potential public uses, and then recommend to Town Meeting that the rest be declared surplus and sold. These surplus lots could bring in a nice little revenue for a few years if they were sold in the open market for their market value. This was not the process used by Chairman Lawless last year when he tried to dispose of our 98-acre, probably 20-30-million dollar lot on Wilbur Ave in a below-market-price disposition to a farmer friend of his. The Planning Board's process would be transparent, unlike the secretive process used by Chairman Lawless (You can see my criticism of Chairman Lawless's attempted secretive sale in my Feb. 21 post at https://www.facebook.com/MendesSomersetPlanningBoard)

It won't do us any good to sell surplus town land if the revenue is simply dumped into the capital fund: Voters at future town meetings would treat that capital like Halloween candy and gorge themselves on all kinds of nonsense. When the Planning Board asks voters at town meeting to sell surplus lots, it should also recommend restricting the use of the proceeds for the repayment of our Middle School debt.

The value we have locked up in scattered surplus lots won't pay off our entire Middle School debt. But it will buy us time, keeping our taxes lower while we rebuild the Town's industrial tax base. Somerset has depended for a century on high-tax-paying industry to help fund this town. There is no other way for a town of moderate-income residents in moderately priced homes to support the schools, police, fire, and public services that we have.

Well, that's my opinion. If you agree with me, then join other voters at Town Elections next Monday, April 11 at the High School, sometime between noon and 8 PM. Vote for me, Lloyd Mendes, for Somerset Planning Board. Thank you.

04/01/2022

Extend the bike lane

This is a shout-out to our former Town Planner, Nancy Durfee, who planned, lobbied, and wrote the $32,000 grant for the bike lane along Brayton Ave and Read Street. Nancy did amazing work for the Town in the few years she worked for us (you can see all her efforts -- recodification of our zoning bylaws, studies of traffic improvement on Wilbur Ave, the Town Master Plan, and lots of other projects -- at https://www.TownOfSomerset.org/town-planner. She got us involved with the State's Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness planning, a report of which I cited in a post about climate change at https://www.facebook.com/MendesSomersetPlanningBoard.

If elected to the Planning Board, I'll continue Nancy's effort to extend bike lanes in Somerset. I believe we should extend Nancy's bike lane westward from South Elementary School to the Swansea line. Making our basketball courts at South Sports Complex more accessible to kids all along Read Street is like building a basketball court near these kids' homes -- without the expense.

Linking Nancy's bike lane to nearby bike lanes in Swansea will get the state off our backs at a low cost. There is political pressure to extend the South Coast Bike Way (https://www.SouthCoastBikeWay.com) and the Taunton River Bike Trail (http://TauntonRiverTrail.Weebly.com). Governor Baker supported bicycling and walking, but in a way that served regular folks: He favored shorter bike lanes near folks' homes. However, the previous (and perhaps future) Governor's administration favored long-distance cyclists with very long bike highways. Do we want to face pressure in the future to build an expensive bike lane along Routes 6 or 103? Do we want a disruptive bike lane along Riverside Ave, where homes are built close to an already narrow and busy residential street? It's better for us to grab the initiative and to link up the South Coast Bike Trail along wide-shouldered Read Street. It's cheaper for us to link up the Taunton River Bike Trail with a few hundred feet of paint along Brayton Ave and along Whetstone Hill Rd. Let's tie into Swansea's bike lanes and save ourselves the cost of longer bike lanes elsewhere.

If elected to the Planning Board, I'll advance those of Nancy Durfee's projects that I think are most cost-effective. I won't be as capable. She is a trained and experienced planner who brought the Town much state and federal funding in her short time here.

Unfortunately, Nancy cannot advance her own projects in Somerset or bring us any more state and federal funding. She was let go by the Selectmen, after a long and vicious Facebook campaign (including an exploding sex-toy sent through the mail to her home) failed to frighten her into quitting. We have lost many faithful town employees lately due to a hostile working environment -- a veterans agent, police chief, town administrator, building inspector, with others talking quietly of leaving.

The Planning Board has no power to hire or fire. However, if elected, I'll exercise moral leadership. I'll push back on the vicious, vulgar climate that discourages dedicated town employees. At least when they work with the Planning Board, they'll be treated with respect. I can do this because I'm independent of Chairman Lorne Lawless. My opponent is not.

An independent voice on the Planning Board can maintain balance at a time when too much power is concentrated in one man's hands.

Faithful town employees come and go. Only faithful voters can protect the Town far into the future. Plan to vote on Monday, April 11, between noon and 8 PM at the High School. Remind your friends and neighbors.

Planning is important.

03/23/2022

Transparent Zoning:

Our town's public land is hidden away from most voters and taxpayers. Our public lands need to be brought out into the light where we can see what we own. That's transparency, and it's used in democratic countries to protect public assets from misappropriation.

Small parks and waterfront-access points are scattered throughout our small town, but few residents know about them. Sure, everyone knows about Pierce Beach, but do you know about the public-access waterfront at Slades Ferry? What about the one at Pratt Beach in Pottersville?

While our two biggest recreational lots, Pierce Beach and Slades Ferry cemetery, are shown as "parks" on our official zoning map, none of our smaller parks are shown. They get little use from residents and little attention from the selectmen, because most folks don't know about them.

These little parks are hidden gems, known only to a few. But the problem with hiding your gems is that you may forget where you hid them. Someone dishonest might be tempted to take what you probably won't even miss.

See the photos of the little public parks and waterfront-access points posted here. Can you identify them? Can your neighbors? Only one of these areas is shown on our official zoning map as a park: Slades Ferry waterfront. Former Town Planner Nancy Durfee championed waterfront access at Slades Ferry. She persuaded the former Town Administrator to clear away brush, starting to make the waterfront accessible to the public. That process was stopped when the Town Planner and Town Administrator were pushed out their jobs. The Planning Board can restart Nancy's efforts at our other little parks, independently of the selectmen.

How is that possible? The Planning Board doesn't have a budget, can't buy or sell land, and can't direct the Highway Dept or other town employees. It's pretty powerless, right?

Wrong! The Planning Board has the power of transparent zoning: It can shine a light on small, mostly forgotten public lands. Then it would be up to the Town Administrator and Selectmen to clean up our lands and improve access -- if they wanted to. If the selectmen didn't want to, voters would still know the value of these little parks because of transparency. Maybe a local group or business would volunteer to build a kayak rack, like folks do in Bristol. (See my post from April 10 of last year, "Summer's coming," at https://www.facebook.com/MendesSomersetPlanningBoard on how we can learn from Bristol.)

Or maybe the selectmen would decide that the publicly owned lot was "surplus" and ask for the voters' authorization to sell it. That's legitimate too, if the selectmen do it in a legal, transparent manner. (See my post, "The Giveaway of Town Land at Bargain Prices" at https://www.facebook.com/MendesSomersetPlanningBoard for an example of what I consider an illegitimate attempt to sell our public land without transparency.) When we shine the light of transparency on public assets, we defend them from misappropriation.

Elect me, Lloyd Mendes, to Somerset Planning Board. I'll use transparency to bring our public parks and other vacant land into the light where we can protect maintain, and cherish them.