good evening thank you for tuning in my name is roger colton and i'm running for the board of selectmen i have been a resident of belmont for nearly thirty years first living in the waverly square neighborhood and now living in cushing square i've been married to my wife and lives a for more than twenty years and i have raised one daughter allison who graduated from belmont high few years ago and she is now a junior in college belmont is a wonderful community but thinking that belmont is a wonderful community does not mean that we cannot recognize the fact that belmont faces some real problems that need to be addressed money is at the top of the list people today worry about whether and how belmont will continue to deliver the same quality of education to our kids that we have delivered in the past people worry about whether we will deliver the quality of education in the future that our kids both need and deserve to receive in addition to the schools however people worry about whether and how we will ever pay for our streets infix our sidewalks i want to spend a few minutes today talking about why i'm the person who can best help fix those problems there are three reasons why i'm the right person for you to hire to develop solutions for about a month and then to follow through to make sure those solutions really happening first i invite you to think about the process that we are now going through at its core being a member of the board of selectmen should be seen as a job on april first you will decide who you wish to hire for that job the process in which we are now to now engaged should not be viewed simply as a political campaign it should be seen as a communal job interview your choice is to hire the person you feel is best qualified for this job for more than thirty years i have worked as an attorney and as an economist and utility rate cases i tend to work for state attorney general offices around the country when natural gas and electric utilities file rate cases i work to ensure that the utility is delivering quality service at a reasonable cost you can substitute the word taxpayer for the word great pair and the issues are nearly the same i haven't simply attended committee meetings on finding efficiencies in delivering local services i have lived that quest for my entire professional life second i have a history of creative problem solving for about mot a few years back you may remember the high school needed new heating and ventilation equipment but the town's capital budget simply didn't have enough money to pay for it and my pride in the town brought in a private company called an escrow an energy services company which at the company's expense installed energy conservation measures in both the town and school buildings part of the bill savings from those conservation measures went to pay the company back and the other part of the savings we used to pay for the heating and ventilation equipment on the high school we received not only the benefit from the bill reductions that came from the our reduced energy consumption we got our new heating and ventilation equipment on the high school without using any taxpayer dollars third i get things done under my leadership we both preserved and renovated the waverley square fire station under my leadership we built the first affordable housing in belmont in fifty years under my leadership we adopted an energy efficient building code under my leadership we reformed cow meeting to make it more accessible to families with children under my leadership we took steps to control storm water runoff and to prevent flooding in the wind brook and waverly square neighborhoods i'm viii to visit my web site w w w dot dot com to learn more about what i have accomplished for belmont and to learn about how i stand on the issues my phone number and email addresses are also there if you ever wish to contact me with any questions you may have or with any concerns that you might wish to discuss about the town of valmeyer it well belmont needs today for the job of being a member of the board of selectmen is a person who will not only find creative solutions to the challenges that face us but someone who will then follow through in making sure those solutions really happen i'm the person who can do that however i cannot do it alone i need your help i ask for your support in finding solutions to the problems that face our community i ask for your vote on april first thank you and have a great evening