WESTFIELD – Candidate Mike Roeder said that his platform came by bruising his knuckles by knocking on the doors of 1,700 homes in the city.
“My issues platform is very specific. They are driven by my conversations with numerous residents on my door-to-door campaign,” Roeder said in a release to the Westfield News.
Roeder lists six areas that will be the focus of his campaign and, if elected, he administration. The six issues are property taxes, roads, education, municipal budget and spending, bonding and quality of life issues.
Roeder said that “homeowners want tax relief now. My goal as mayor will be to stabilize the tax rate in fiscal year 2016-2017.
“In other words, no tax increases. As you know, the new mayor comes on board in the middle of the fiscal year, so my immediate goal after swearing in is to ensure that departments are operating within their budget allocations,” Roeder said.
Roeder said his goal for the Fiscal 2016-2017 fiscal years is to adopt a level-funding budget, but also to avoid layoffs.
“I am advocating a level-funded budget which will require sacrifice, but without layoffs,” Roeder said. “The teacher layoffs this fiscal year could have been avoided. There will be a hiring freeze , with limited exceptions, and no new positions.”
Another major issue in Roeder’s campaign, based upon citizen input, is to improve the condition of city roads.
“Homeowners want their roads fixed now,” Roeder said. “”I understand over 400 miles of paved roads exist in this city. Nevertheless, I have seen the roads (during) my campaign, they are a mess.”
“I have seen Papermill, Montgomery and the southern portion of Northwest Road, Wood Road and many, many more,” Roeder said. “The entire plan for long-term road reconstruction will be reviewed in the first days of my administration. This is certainly an area where the state must increase its funding support.”
Roeder said that education will be a priority, but that he will take a different road than his mayoral opponent to act on that goal to improve the quality of education, but a goal which will not include construction of an elementary school on Cross and Ashley streets.
“Residents are weary if the Cross Street school debacle,” Roeder said. “They want a resolution . The courts will hopefully provide an Article 97 decision before the end of the year.
“My opponent wants the school on Cross Street. I want to build it somewhere else with MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority) concurrence,” Roeder said. “This is a good starting point if you are voting. On this issue there is a clear choice. Resolution of this important issue will allow the School Department to move forward to serve the city’s most important asset, our children.”
Roeder said the quality of life in the city is being degraded by the “heroin epidemic in this state and this community” and by the “notorious keg parties’ which plague many neighborhoods.
“I am not happy when the courts release these offenders on no or low bond,” Roeder said of heroin addicts. “These people need treatment and releasing them back into the community ensures that will no happen.”
Roeder said that the city has to end the disturbances cause by college students in the city’s neighborhoods.
“I think we need to re-examine the city’s relationship with Westfield State University,” Roeder said. “I hope to do this when a new president is selected.”
