Russell’s voters made some very difficult choices in their Annual Town Meeting on Monday June 11. We understand all too well the serious problems facing our region’s schools, our towns, our taxpayers. We may not know about all the details and day-to-day efforts of fellow citizens, often behind the scenes, to help and improve our lives. We can however see real progress being made by local groups and alliances like the Hilltown Collaborative, Hilltown CDC and Jacobs Ladder Business Assoc., the Joint Task Force of schools and towns, and more. We can appreciate the statewide awareness and support for these efforts that we are building. We are getting strong expertise and funding for carefully targeted and locally managed projects. The votes taken at Russell’s meeting reflect our town’s commitment to a more prosperous future, to making personal and community-wide investments, and to joining forces with five other towns, even at great expense.
We are not “out of the woods” by any stretch, and today we are closer to the start than to the conclusion of our efforts. We are, however on a good, positive and promising course. Continuing to work with our neighboring towns and fellow citizens will make this course pay off. There is much more hard work to do! Our leaders need your strong support now and going forward.
Derrick Mason, Russell
