Mayor Welcome: Change starts at local level

WINSTED — After an intense election season, the new Board of Selectmen was inaugurated at Town Hall in a ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 9. The board unanimously elected Maryann Welcome as the new mayor and Candy Perez as the deputy mayor. During the ceremony, Welcome thanked the residents of Winsted for electing the board.“I appreciate their confidence in us,” Welcome said. “We will definitely be working for the betterment of the community. I cannot help but think about what John F. Kennedy said, even though when I first heard it I was too little to understand. In his inaugural address, he said, ‘ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ That is the sole apropos today, except we are going to substitute ‘community’ instead of ‘country.’“There is so much dysfunction at the national level and even at the state level. If there is going to be any change in this country, it is going to start here at this level, at the local level. It will be grassroots. It has to start at the community.“Whatever your expertise is, if you can help get this community back on track and make it the best community in the Northwest Corner, then we’re going to be asking for your help. So please be prepared to come forward. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas, so let’s do this. Let’s start something.”

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