CB: Can you explain to our readers what a Select Board is?
PM: It's really the governing body of a municipal town or city. Most cities have councils. In our town [and mostly throughout Vermont] it's a Select Board.
CB: I'm registered in Vermont as an Independent, but you are a Republican, and stereotypically, Republicans don't focus this much on issues like neighbors helping neighbors, so I was curious about what drew you into all this.
PM: I just think experience. I think many Republicans approach these problems a little bit differently than Democrats do. I don't think it's that we're not interested, but that we have a different solution. We would look to the employer to create jobs, and so on, but you have to have folks ready to even take that step.
CB: OK, so having clarified that, please explain some of the most important aspects of the food, fuel, and transportation details of preparing for this winter in your community in Vermont.
PM: What we're trying to do is first of all, get the word out to make sure people know what services are available. These efforts are happening on the state, regional, and town levels, but we want to make sure people know that help is there. I think we're looking at a different group than we've normally served in the past-a group that hasn't had to deal with these struggles before. They're going to be making some very tough choices probably for the first time. They've been hanging on just barely. Some have just recently lost their jobs, some are widows or widowers, and things are more expensive now. They've been hanging on with their incomes, and now they're having to make different decisions than they've made before, and we're very concerned about them because they don't know who to ask, and they don't want to ask. In New England we're a stubborn lot, and we want to be self-reliant.
We want people to know that they're not alone, and that it's OK to ask for help. What we've done in my town of Berlin is to say, "Well, if we can help you in terms of food, fuel, or transportation, perhaps in turn, you can help us by being part of the process." It's more of a barter/trade process. Maybe if you've got transportation, you can transport someone else to go get food or medication. In Berlin, we want to make sure that we have a team in place, so that when we do have an issue, we can respond accordingly.
We're also trying to get volunteers to participate. We put together a Wood Warm project which unfortunately started too late so that the wood isn't quite seasoned yet, but we're asking for volunteers who already have cut wood if they'd be willing to set aside some wood on their property, and then we're asking volunteers to go get that wood and match it up with the individual needs of people who don't have fuel.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
