Letter To the Editor: Joint Seekonk Select Board/Medeiros Farm Committee meeting

Actions speak louder than words, even if those words are spoken stridently at great length. At the joint meeting of the Select Board and Medeiros Farm Committee on June 24, 3 members of the Select Board chose to disregard the will of the town residents as expressed in several town meetings and interfere in the progress of the Medeiros Farm project. They took two votes which, in our opinion and that of others in attendance, made no procedural or financial sense.

The Board voted 3 to 2 ( Healy and Zorra opposed), against the advice of the town administrator, to do a traffic study based on a conceptual design which was not meant to be final, and is already undergoing major changes, and to cancel a contract that was ready to be signed, forcing the committee to start the whole process over again. Instead of following the well-established procedure of hiring a firm to do the necessary site studies to create a feasible design, as was voted on at Town Meeting, the Board has put the cart before the horse and opted to do a traffic study based on unreliable information. We can only assume this is a delaying tactic, and that there is some other hidden agenda here. We heard repeatedly how some members absolutely support the project, but then those same members voted to halt the project for no rational reason. How do you study how much field maintenance will cost if you don’t know how many fields are feasible? How do you study traffic and parking, if you don’t know what facilities will be offered? Does the Board really think that the townspeople weren’t aware that there would be on-going costs with this project? Do they really think we are that ill-informed? There will be ample opportunities for more votes on the extent and cost of this project once we have accurate engineering and architectural designs.

We are frustrated and disgusted that some members of the Select Board feel so free to disregard the voices of the residents, even to the extent of disrespect. In the meantime, the Medeiros farm buildings sit there unused, a beautiful property which could be open to residents for many recreational, cultural, and historical activities sit empty and silent, and costs will only continue to climb. What a shame.


Bonnie DeBlois
Joan Webb
Susan Waddington
Martha Manno