Nat Fortune: Put the blame on me

Whately Select Board members Julie Waggoner, Fred Baron, and Joyce Palmer-Fortune, as well as Town Moderator Nathanael Fortune at the June 18 Annual Town Meeting.

Whately Select Board members Julie Waggoner, Fred Baron, and Joyce Palmer-Fortune, as well as Town Moderator Nathanael Fortune at the June 18 Annual Town Meeting. STAFF PHOTO

Published: 07-16-2024 5:43 PM

Modified: 07-17-2024 2:12 PM


In a recent guest column registering her disagreement with the decision of annual Town Meeting voters on June 18 to request a single ZIP code for Whately, writer Ruth Leahey also wondered why “those in charge” failed to take into account the adverse effect that hot weather would have on our senior citizens and those with compromised health [“Multiple ZIP code issue not worth addressing,” Gazette, July 4]. Why did we not move the meeting indoors to the cooler environs of our newly renovated Town Hall?

I write as town moderator to take the blame. Our wrongly maligned administrators had suggested a date in mid-May! I asked the Select Board to move the meeting to after the town election in June so that I would not have to cut short scheduled work abroad. Worse, I did not allow enough time before the date chosen and the end of the fiscal year to allow the meeting to be postponed to the next workable date two weeks later.

Our open meeting laws are designed to ensure honest dealing, but they also mean we can change neither the location nor the date of the meeting within a week of the meeting without a state declaration of emergency. We instead did what we could, providing shady areas for seating and coolers of cold water. Global warming has now taught us we should hold town meeting earlier or at Town Hall for the good health of all.

That said, we have been meeting outside since COVID expressly because of our concerns for the health of our seniors!

Nat Fortune

Town moderator, Whately