Athol's Lee vows to work for all in district
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| Susannah Whipps Lee greets supporters in downtown Athol on Election Day. She defeated incumbent state Rep. Denise Andrews, D-Orange, for the 2nd Franklin District seat. (GEORGE BARNES) |
By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
george.barnes@telegram.com
With the final votes tallied by 2:30 Wednesday morning, Republican Susannah Whipps Lee of Athol solidly beat incumbent state Rep. Denise Andrews, D-Orange, in a rematch from two years ago.
Ms. Lee won with 55 percent of the vote: 7,342 to 6,096. The final votes in from the 12-town district came from Petersham, which had a 71 percent turnout and completed its work in the early morning. The town's tally helped increase Ms. Lee's lead, giving her another 336 votes to 291 for Ms. Andrews.
In 2012, Ms. Andrews defeated Ms. Lee by a slim margin of 180 votes, 8,264 to 8,084, while third-party candidate Richard Schoeber received 1,906 votes.
There were also three candidates in 2010, when Ms. Andrews defeated Republican Steven E. Adam of Orange and independent Genevieve C. Fraser, also of Orange.
Ms. Lee started early thanking supporters with messages posted on social media. Tuesday night at her campaign celebration at the King Phillip Restaurant in Phillipston she said she was thrilled with winning the election."I feel amazing," she said, adding that she was very confident going into Election Day. "We left everything on the table. We busted our butts."
Ms. Lee said she had her first victory party Monday night, when she held an event to thank her many workers. She said the race was challenging, but she hopes that when she goes to Boston she will do the kind of job she expects to do and convince everyone in the district she has its best interests at heart.
Ms. Lee won big in Athol, Orange and Templeton, while Ms. Andrews ran strongly in the small towns. In Athol Ms. Lee received 2,210 votes to 1,076 for Ms. Andrews. In Orange, Ms. Andrews' hometown, Ms. Lee received 1,388 votes to 881 for Ms. Andrews, and in Templeton, Ms. Lee outpolled Ms. Andrews 1,429 to 1,165. There are 12 communities in the district; Athol, Orange and Templeton are the largest. Ms. Lee said she did not win in Precinct A in Belchertown but did better than in the past.
Contact George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter@georgebarnesTG
Ms. Lee has her work cut out for her in Templeton. The plans the State has for our town, are that we pick up ball and take over the responsibilities the Developmental Center has previously done, with just about no notice or funding. This is below the belt, dirty doings on their part. The road that people were not welcome to drive down, as you got stopped and a security person would ask what you were doing there, has magically become a town road. The sewer system the center used, was not maintained, so now they want to leave buildings standing with no septic that can be used legally. The cost of a upgrade is anyones guess, but I know it is more than we can afford. The water system is in no better shape than anything else they were responsible for, so if you are like me, you wonder why ?? I spent about four hours with Ms. Andrews and the management at the TDC, a couple of weeks ago. It is very clear they want to hold on to the property for about 40 clients, at this stage of the game.
ReplyDeleteI can't forget their expectations of Templeton, to provide security when ever they need it. As things stand now, this would tax our already limited police force. None of these expectations can be met because of the financial straights our town is in. In my book, we need to provide for our people, before we can even think of dealing with the TDC. So, seeing the Town of Templeton has not received one penny in payment, as in a PILOT or taxes in 130 years, Ms. Lee had better fight hard for our Town, or we need to tell them "no deal" !! Our town is far from out of the woods as far as our money shortage goes. We should not count the money we received for 252 as free cash. In my book it should go toward the money we owe on it. Sharon Manty was right. We will be in the same boat as Winchendon if we misuse money that should go somewhere else, Like toward the bill !! I am sure Ms. Lee will find herself busy, I do hope she can find her way out of Athol. Bev.
ReplyDeleteTempleton does not have to just accept responsibility for the center. Inform the state they will have to have the state police patrol up there as Templeton does not have the resources to cover it. There is a trooper who lives close by. Maybe Phillipston can take care of it as they want a seat at the table.
ReplyDeleteThis plan that the people in charge of closing the TDC was written July 1, 2009 and approved August 6, 2009. Chapter 59: An act Relative to Development in towns of Monson and Templeton. Seeing this was written up a while ago, why didn't we have a person at the table ?? This plan leaves Phillipston and Royalston out of the loop entirely, and they have land that the TDC sits on. Come to think about it, I was under the impression Virginia Wilder was supposed to represent the town, but in fairness to her I am not sure they let her know when or if they had scheduled a meeting. As things stand right now,there is going to be a amendment to this chapter including Phillipston, and making a few other changes. When this is complete we will post a copy for everyone to see. I know that one of the towns have to respond if there is a medical emergency, because if we don't we will be breaking the law. It is interesting that one group home is going to be on the other side of the road to Royalston. I think they call it Elliot Hill. When Ms. Andrews was talking about what could be done to bring business to the area, Ms. Lyons replied "Only if it did not interfere with their program." So sticking 6 or 7 clients out on that hill, means in a round about way, nothing else is going there. I have the feeling the people in charge think they sewed the their plan shut tight. We will see about that, and it will come out in the wash. Bev.
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