Candidates for 8th Bristol District sound off at Westport forum

Four Westporters and an Acushnet resident seek seat vacated by outgoing Rep. Paul Schmid

By Shaunna Watson
Posted 10/30/24

Five candidates for the 8th District State Representative seat being vacated by outgoing Rep. Paul Schmid answered questions and discussed the issues they believe are affecting the district, in a …

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Candidates for 8th Bristol District sound off at Westport forum

Four Westporters and an Acushnet resident seek seat vacated by outgoing Rep. Paul Schmid

Posted

Five candidates for the 8th District State Representative seat being vacated by outgoing Rep. Paul Schmid answered questions and discussed the issues they believe are affecting the district, in a forum held Tuesday evening in the Westport Middle High School auditorium.

Four — school committee members Christopher Thrasher, select board members Manuel Soares Jr. and Steve Ouellette, and attorney Laura A. Hadley — hail from Westport, while Independent Jesse W. St. Gelais is from Achushnet.

Representatives from the business and fishing communities were given the floor to speak first before questions were opened up to residents. American Legion president Tony Vieira moderated the forum, which was organized by the Legion and theWestport Business to Business group.

The first question posed touched on unfunded mandates impacting the district, which towns like Westport often struggle to pay for.

“We need an entire reevaluation of these funding formulas from top to bottom,” Thrasher said.

Soares added that one of the reasons he ran for planning board four years ago was to help bring money back into town. He said there should be a grant writer on staff because “the money is there and we need to chase it.”

In contrast, Gelais said chasing the money is a short-sighted approach and that the common sense approach would be to attract business growth in the communities, thereby creating jobs and increasing the commercial tax base.

Hadley, who is running her first campaign for office, said that at the bare minimum, the amount of money received should be increased and she would review the state’s planning formulas if elected.

Ouellette said that he would try to receive the maximum funding for projects and, similar to Soares, suggested grants as an alternative solution to make up some of the money.

 

Wind farms and commercial fishermen

Wind farms are a hot button issue along the South Coast, especially following the failure of a turbine blade off the Vineyard this summer that spread debris — mostly small chunks of foam and other blade material — up and down the coast.

Candidates were asked whether they would support a bond to mediate wind farm materials washing up on area shores, and on another matter, whether they would help increase the food security grant for fishermen.

Thrasher spoke about his dislike for offshore wind, saying “it’s very hard when talking about this subject to not start ranting and raving because we were sold a bill of goods on this entire offshore wind scam.”

If he gets elected, he said, he will work to combat the damages caused by the industry and keep a close eye on wind farm projects now underway.

Hadley said environmental impact statements should be considered before decisions on whether to approve wind projects are made. Day one, she said, she would review all offshore contracts currently in place.

As for supporting fishermen, Soares, Gelais and Ouellette said the problem lies mostly with the lack of support for the fishing community. They all agreed that talking to residents and understanding the impact that offshore wind and the fishermen funding issue has on them.

Not all agreed with some of the candidates’ positions. One audience member took issue with their negative views on offshore wind:

“New Bedford is supporting offshore wind and commercial fishing. For 20 yeas it has been the number one fishing port in the country and somehow the fishermen in New Bedford think they can do fishing with offshore wind so you might want to think about why those fishermen, the number one fishermen in the country, think that they can make money with offshore wind before you start to ban offshore wind.”

“As far a coexistence goes, the board of New Bedford just set the latest round of (wind farm) leases [and the ones] that were presented were egregiously encroaching on some of the scalloping areas out on the Atlantic Ocean and there were some concern there,”  Thrasher replied, adding that after speaking with fishermen they spoke negatively of the effects of the large turbines and the issue will only continue to get worse if not address.

One of the most popular resident questions, by way of crowd applause, came when one asked what each candidate thought was the most important issue facing Westport over the next year, and what they planed to do about it.

Ouellette said to him, it’s the large number of projects passed through the legislature that lack funding, and bringing in more funds by way of new businesses would address that.

To Hadley the biggest issue is clean water and the fact that many projects surrounding it are not being done with the appropriate technology to support them. She would like to allocate that money to the appropriate technology.

On this point, Soares said he disagreed:

“This sewer water piping for Westport is studied and designed,” he said, referring to the $30 million Route 6 Corridor infrastructure project that was rejected by residents earlier this year.

Gelais said the main issue is that there is a lot of mismanagement of residents’ tax dollars and the solution is getting back to representing and listening to people in the community.

Affordability is the most important issue, Thrasher said.

The forum did not always go smoothly, and there were occasional arguments between candidates, as well as some heckling from the audience directed at Hadley. Several questioned why representatives of the agricultural community and the “average family” were not in attendance to ask questions.

 

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