After deliberations, the EALS Coalition Advisory Board has decided to officially endorse incumbent Kevin Greeley as member of the Board of Selectman.

The election will be held on Saturday April 10th and we encourage everyone to vote for Mr. Greeley who is in a tough re-election battle with Maria Romano, a candidate who the Board believes will take Arlington in the wrong direction. Kevin has had a successful 20 year career as a Selectman, free of major controversy or scandal. Five years ago, he was a strong supporter of the Override to help fund our schools and for the past year, he has been a strong supporter of the pedestrian, bike and aesthetic improvements for the Mass Ave Corridor planning effort.

His primary opponent is Maria Romano of Bates Road. She has no political experience other than her role as the leader of the Concerned Citizens Committee (CCC), the group whose sole purpose was to stop the Mass Ave Corridor planning process last year. The group opposed nearly all of the driver, pedestrian and bicycle safety enhancements in order to maintain the status quo of 4+ lanes of speeding traffic. In verbal and written statements, Ms. Romano and the CCC advocated to stop the project and to send most of the $4.5 million in Federal transportation enhancement money back to Washington to “send a message” about government waste. The “waste” they referred to are the things most of us liked about the plan: shorter crosswalks, dedicated turn lanes, wider sidewalks in places, new street trees and bike lanes. The group remained quiet on the local tax money that would be needed to remake portions of Mass Ave over the next 10 or 20 years if the Federal money was refused. As we know, Ms. Romano and the CCC was successful in convincing many residents and business owners to oppose the planning effort, but did so using misinformation and worst-case scenario fears. She and the group argued that emergency vehicles would be delayed because of the bike lanes and bump outs, despite public denials by the Town’s engineers, the Police Chief and the Fire Chief. They spoke of massive traffic jams and additional cut-through traffic on side streets despite the three traffic studies by consultants that said otherwise. The loss of curb-side parking would destroy the business community according to them despite the reality that only a handful of the legal spaces would be lost along the one mile corridor.

To the EALS Board, this does not sound like the attributes of someone we want running Town government. Ms. Romano is running an energized campaign and cannot be disregarded. Her literature has ignored the Mass Ave issue and she is running as a moderate who wants to unite Arlington (“One Arlington” is her motto). This winter’s Senate race showed that nothing can be taken for granted. We urge you to support Kevin Greeley and his campaign in whichever way you can.

Besides voting for him on April 10th, here are some other things you can do: Forward this message to friends and neighbors, especially if you do not believe they are part of the EALS list. Sign up for a bumper sticker, a lawn sign or volunteer to hold campaign signs by contacting the campaign at greeleycom@aol.com or 781-648-1973 Write a letter to the Advocate expressing your support for Kevin Greeley and please use some of the points above about him or his opponent Consider hosting a campaign coffee with Kevin at your home and invite 20-30 friends and neighbors