First of some reviews for next weeks elections. This one reviews candidates for our State Representative. Bettie Harris-Howard lives in Lebanon. She is a retired nursing home administrator. She has several degrees including a Master’s Degree. She has served on many local and state committees. She has served on the Maine State Democratic Committee from 2012 to current. Locally, she has volunteered on the Lebanon Budget Committee and Lebanon Appeals Board. She has also helped with many community functions, like the Lebanon Road Clean Up on Earth Day, Lebanon Community Festival and helping wrap gifts for Operation Santa, which provided gifts to over 300 Lebanon children. Unlike her opponent Karen Gerrish, she believes the minimum wage should be raised to $7.50 per hour. In a recent interview with a local newspaper, she said “I believe we should provide a living wage, we have proven that those making minimum wage are not just entry level jobs. Families can not support themselves on one or even 2 minimum wage jobs. Providing a living wage would allow families to lift out of poverty, decrease their dependence on social programs, there by reduce the need for tax money for these programs and add more to our economy.” Also, unlike her opponent, she would support legalization of marijuana, which passed statewide approval. Bettie said “I believe that legalizing marijuana with strong laws and careful regulation could add to our economy and decrease the expense of arrest, prosecution, and incarceration. Too many lives have been permanently damaged by the classification of this product as a level four drug.” Her opponent, Ms. Gerrish said “As a mother and an educator I will never support the legalization of marijuana.” After reviewing many articles and talking with many people, there is only one clear candidate for Maine House Seat 20. We will spell out many of the reasons below: Bettie Harris-Howard has the time to commit to the residents of Lebanon, Acton and Shapleigh. She is retired and wants to represent all the people of her communities. Karen Gerrish is a full time Ed-Tech at the school, and most of the time required to be in Augusta is the same time she is in school. Bettie Harris-Howard wants to represent all of the people of Acton, Shapleigh and Lebanon. She is involved in a lot of projects around town. I personally never saw Karen Gerrish at any rescue event in the 26 years I served on the rescue or other events. I saw Bettie at the roadside clean-ups, the Halloween events, at wrapping sessions to help the kids in the community and more. Many people have commented on many different sites that Karen is a great ed-tech, but a really bad leader in politics. I would agree. She believes in cliques and favoritism if you will support her. Bettie Harris-Howard believes in government transparency. She has offered her ideas and solutions to problems in the community. Karen Gerrish said when she was running that she believed in transparency but then many things prove otherwise. These included hiring a new town attorney without seeking bids and without even telling one of the other selectman when she was the chairman. This includes going after some certain banks instead of soliciting bids for the towns banking services. She continually approved town expenses that were not budgeted for. Karen Gerrish showed she was the farthest thing from a conservative. Karen Gerrish led the unsuccessful attempts to control town businesses by passing a very poorly written mass gathering ordinance. Even after voters overwhelmingly defeated it, she brought It back for another vote and thankfully the voters defeated it again. She is against local business. When the rescue chief retired, she had given Ms. Gerrish notice in June that she planned on retiring to spend more time with her family. Karen asked her close friend to become the new interim chief. This led to the largest costs of many expenses ever! The heating costs for a few months when he took over was almost triple the costs for the previous three years combined! He also had most members leave the department and a large portion of emergency calls went unanswered. The rescue chief made a recommendation of someone to take over, but Karen wanted her friend to do it. Since then, the Selectmen hired another chief who backed out and then guess what, they hired the person who the retired chief had suggested. Maybe things would have been better if they did that 9 months earlier! The town lost a lot of money by not responding and transporting the patients. The town was in a defecit awaiting money from the state and federal government. The townspeople voted to pay off the defecit in June, but that’s still used as the excuse for the selectmen for all the town problems. The real winners of the whole thing were Ms. Gerrish and Mr. Thompson, who were paid for a lot of hours to “investigate” the retired chiefs. So, next Tuesday, we encourage everyone to vote. The ballot is short and you can quickly vote. There are other serious issues on the ballot including a poorly written article asking the townspeople to forfeit the nearly $160,000 already invested in the new ambulance and equipment to allow the bank to repo the ambulance and equipment. Vote No on One! The two people on the ballot make it easy for the Lebanon Community News to endorse one candidate over another. Please take the time to vote for Bettie Harris-Howard for our next State Representative.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 21:53:00 +0000
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