SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN ENDORSES MIKE TAUTZNIK

From the Springfield Republican/MassLive:

Mayor Michael A. Tautznik, who is seeking his eighth term as Easthampton’s first and only mayor, faces a challenge from retired former police captain Donald C. Emerson in next Tuesday’s election. The mayor is running on his record, touting his success in luring a burgeoning arts community to the Eastworks complex in the former Stanley Homes Products facility. Emerson is arguing that it’s a time for a change.

We believe that Tautznik’s experience and successes make him the better candidate to attract new businesses while championing Easthampton’s unsung quality of life. While Tautznik acknowledges that Easthampton won’t ever outshine neighboring Northampton, he touts his efforts to put this second city on the tourist destination map.  Tautznik plans to build a boardwalk around Nashawannuck Pond to bring people to downtown. And the city is already planning a 2012 Bear Fest, a citywide art installation.

HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE ENDORSES MAYOR MIKE

In the Easthampton mayoral race this year, voters are faced with a choice between incumbent Mayor Michael Tautznik, seeking re-election to an eighth term in office, and a former longtime member of the police force, Donald Emerson, who wants to unseat him. Both men are impressive in their devotion to the community where they were born and raised. And both candidates have the best interests of their city in mind in their quests to be CEO of Easthampton.

 

But we think Tautznik is the clear stand-out and deserves to win re-election Tuesday. He has a broad array of skills and knowledge honed over the past 15 years which continue to serve the city well.

 

Emerson pledges if elected to be an ambassador for the city. He has promised to be a better listener and provide stronger leadership than Tautznik. He believes Tautznik has allowed city employee morale to sink, and as he campaigned, he says he's heard from residents who say Tautznik has been in office too long.  Beyond that general critique of the Tautznik administration, Emerson has been woefully short on specifics, except to say he would reopen the municipal building on Fridays and keep Mountain Road open more during the winter. Those may be ideas worth considering, but they do not articulate a vision for a city in 2012.

 

Tautznik over the past decade and a half has overseen Easthampton's transformation from a struggling mill town into a city that has become a hub of arts and culture for a new generation. Under his guidance, the city opened a new municipal building, built a public safety complex and the water treatment plant and created the Manhan Rail Trail. Still in the works are a new high school and a solar project at a former landfill. Tautznik says he wants to see these projects through to completion and we believe he has earned the right to do so.

 

In addition, he is championing the creation of a boardwalk for the banks of Nashawannuck Pond and the development of affordable housing in the former Easthampton Dye Works building on Cottage Street.

 

A city leader today must be a good manager of managers, prepare and execute a balanced budget, inspire creativity and command respect. In Easthampton, where the mayor's post is still in its infancy in many ways, the leader of the city must be both a visionary and a pragmatist.

The mayor needs to listen to the ideas of others, yet be decisive. After all is said and done, the mayor must make decisions that not everyone will applaud. We believe Tauztnik scores high on all these counts.

 

Tautznik has been criticized in some quarters for not being supportive enough of the businesses in town. This is a common criticism leveled at city leaders who stay in office for multiple terms, particularly if they coincide with business downturns. A mayor can and should work in partnership with businesses. But a mayor's main job is to make sure a city functions well. We believe some of the criticisms leveled at Tautznik are misdirected frustrations whose source is the ongoing economic misery many small businesses are enduring. The success of its business community does not - and must not - rest with the chief elected officer of the city. In other words, no matter how ardent a cheerleader a mayor is for the business community, that person cannot guarantee the success of private businesses. Any time a mayor has been in office for 15 years, people become weary of seeing that person at the helm.

 

But in this case, that is not a good enough reason to vote out of office a mayor who has improved the city in immeasurable ways, who has the best interests of the city at heart and who remains in the best position to make a great city even better.

A DAVID SULLIVAN ENDORSES MAYOR MIKE

Mayor Mike is happy to announce that he has been officially endorsed again by Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan in his re-election campaign. We welcome Dave's support in this crucial election year. Here are the District Attorney's endorsement below:

"Mike Tautznik's strong leadership, experience and innovative vision makes him our best choice for Mayor"

- David Sullivan, DA, Hampshire County

LT. GOV. TIM MURRAY TOURS AREA - ENDORSES MAYOR MIKE



Mayor Michael A. Tautznik led state officials, including Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, on a walking tour of the Oliver Street landfill solar array on Thursday and garnered praise for having the first such project under construction in the state.

The 2.3-megawatt installation is also the largest of those planned and is expected to save residents $1.5 million on power over 10 years.

“This is a great example of Easthampton leading the way for the whole commonwealth,” Murray said. “We really believe we can create a new sector of our economy around clean energy."

"Mike comes with solutions.  This is a Mayor who has proven time and time again, that he can solve problems.  He's worked and lead this city and moved it forward, even in tough times."    -     Lt Gov. Tim Murray

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BEAR FEST BENEFIT FOR SCHOOLS & ARTS RETURNS NEXT  YEAR

The citywide art exhibit that brought thousands of visitors to the city and raised close to $60,000 for schools and the arts in 2009 is on again for the summer of 2012. The Planning Department is seeking bids from manufacturers to create 90 fiberglass bears, while the city's arts council is looking for artists to decorate them. The 2012 Bear Fest has been in the planning stage for months, but the call for manufacturers and artists is an exciting step forward, said Burns Maxey, coordinator of Easthampton City Arts Plus.

In 2009, Bear Fest was a summer-long installation of 67 fiberglass bears that were decorated by local artists. Twenty 4½-foot bears and 15 2½-foot bears were installed along city sidewalks in the downtown, and 32 14-inch bears, which were created by local students, were housed in local businesses. At the end of the exhibit, the bears were auctioned off and raised nearly $60,000, which went to the Easthampton public schools, the art program at Riverside Industries, Easthampton City Arts and the Bear Fest artists. Maxey said this year's Bear Fest will be similar, but even better.

"It's a great project for all the artists showing off their work to thousands of people," she said Friday, after posting the call to artists. "I've talked to people who've grown up here and said that the unveiling of Bear Fest in 2009 was the first time they have seen that many people on Easthampton's streets."

The bears for 2012 will look different than those designed in 2009, although both were designed by Amy Davis, a member of Easthampton City Arts Plus, or ECA+. The bidding window for the construction of 18 large, 22 smaller and 50 "tabletop" bears closes Thursday. In 2009, construction of the bears cost approximately $25,000. Artists have until Feb. 13 to submit their applications to create a bear, including a design, description and background information. A jury will choose the designs to be featured in Bear Fest without knowledge of who created the designs, Maxey said, so it is possible some of the artists that created bears in 2009 will do so again in 2012.

Those chosen to participate will receive a $500 stipend when they get their "naked bear" in early March, and will later receive 25 percent of the auction price of their bear.

Maxey said that for the 2009 Bear Fest, the committee only accepted submissions for three months and still received over 130 applications. "We're starting significantly earlier, so we're expecting to get a lot more," she said. She added that the smaller bears, which were decorated by Easthampton students in 2009, may be decorated by students from Southampton, Westhampton and Easthampton schools this year.

"We're working with the schools to get more students involved," Maxey said. "This is a project that really resonates with children."

One issue that plagued Bear Fest organizers in 2009 was the vandalism and theft of several of the bears. "We're looking into security measures, including GPS, a sort of a Lojack system, to prevent people from stealing the bears in 2012," said Maxey. She added that the group is also considering different options for securing the bears to their perches.

For more information or to download the application to create a bear, visit easthamptonbearfest.com.

Easthampton has a rich history of business and industry. Sprawling textile mills filled with local workers, surrounding our downtown and providing foot traffic and customers to support a wide variety of shops and retail establishments. A thriving rail line with spurs to all of the factory complexes and a freight yard located just off of Liberty Street meant nearly 100 years of good jobs and thriving commerce for all to enjoy. In two decades, from the late 1960's through the mid 1980's, the industries of our historic past began to dwindle. Some were bought out and moved to the South while others faltered because of a shrinking textile industry in this country or the introduction of less expensive foreign products. We're fortunate that some have remained strong through innovation, hard work and perseverance but the large local factory employment we once enjoyed is no longer. I am taking this opportunity to discuss how our response to these changes has been setting the stage for our current and future success.

 

In the late 1980's we began to understand that there would need to be a new and more flexible approach to zoning if we were serious about filling our significant stock of 19th century mills. As a member of our local legislature I was among the early voices who asked that we undertake a comprehensive Master Planning process. As a member of the Board of Selectmen I became a leading voice for a comprehensive overhaul of the rules, one that would make re-use of these historic assets easier. These efforts met with significant success and I'm pleased that our efforts were incorporated into law. Now, more than 20 years later, most of our historic mills are occupied with small business, industries and artists. Those that remain are under new ownership and will once again become productive assets in a new economy. The reason I mention these past efforts is to illustrate the length of time required to see meaningful results from changes in public policy.

 

Today we are at the start of another significant resurgence, brought about by a similar effort to take advantage of the assets already in place in this wonderful community. Our decade of Visioning and Master Planning has brought the best of our thinking into focus and I'm happy to have played an important part in this. Over the past fifteen years the idea of making Easthampton a destination has come to life. We've embraced the arts as a natural extension of our community, expanded our park system and installed new facilities for the enjoyment of citizens and visitors alike. We've nearly completed the construction of the Manhan Rail Trail and have connected it to our neighbors to the North and the South. We've made investments in our Administrative and Public Safety facilities, completed the dredging of Nashawannuck Pond, the jewel of our downtown, and we are in the midst of constructing a 21st century high school for our children. My administration continues to build on this momentum through innovation and creative thinking. We are constructing one of the first solar electric generating facilities in the valley on a formerly useless landfill, making headway on environmental improvements to sustain the longevity and natural habitat of both the Nashawannuck Pond and the Manhan River, and we are seeking funds to build a pedestrian friendly atmosphere in the heart of our city by constructing a boardwalk along the pond at Cottage Street and Williston Avenue.

I have been involved directly in leading our community for more than 34 years, much of it as a volunteer, because I believe in Easthampton. I have worked in cooperation with others to achieve the results we see today and I have the demonstrated ability to foster success in the initiatives of tomorrow.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT