James J. Morrow

(D)

 

Personal Information: I am a longtime resident of Newtown. My wife Nan and I have lived here for 25 years. We have two sons, Jason, 29, and Scott, 24, who were both educated in the Newtown school system and both sons are college graduates.

I was born and raised in Montana and I am a graduate of the University of Montana. I have had 30 years sales and sales management experience in consumer products. I am retired from a sales management position with Tetley Tea.

I was fortunate enough to have served in the US Navy both on active duty and in the Naval Reserve for 25 years. I am retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Commander. I am a member of St Rose Parish and a former member of the Town Players and the Newtown Fish and Game Club.

What personal qualities do you have that you believe will benefit the Legislative Council and the community it serves? I was born and raised in a small town and it was important to me to raise my family the same way. I was attracted to Newtown for the same reason that continues to attract new residents, a small town with a rural atmosphere that has good schools.

Newtown has been very good to my family and me. My business career and my involvement in the Naval Reserve restricted my involvement in my community. Now that I am retired and have some time it gives me the opportunity to give something back to the town.

I consider myself to be a thoughtful person with a good business background. My experience as a military officer, the fact that I have lived and worked in several other states gives me added perspective that might prove useful serving on the Legislative Council. Most important, the best interest of the town would always be my primary focus if I were elected.

What do you believe is the council’s biggest challenge over the next two years? I think the biggest challenge the Legislative Council will face in the next two years is addressing the future of the Fairfield Hills property.

With ownership of Fairfield Hills will quickly come the maintenance, insurance, environmental, and other costs associated with owning a large deteriorating property.

I think we need to quickly make the necessary adjustments to the Fairfield Hills master plan. We need to convince the electorate that it is only a plan to provide direction to the project and that voters will have control of the process as it moves to completion.

We need to preserve as much open space as possible for recreational, cultural facilities, and other municipal purposes that the town will certainly need in the future.

What can the Legislative Council do to limit the growth of Newtown’s tax rate? The ongoing recession has resulted in cuts in state and federal support to towns and municipalities. I believe as we come out of the current recession conditions to lure business to the state and to Newtown will improve. The council needs to continue to encourage and support the town government to fill our existing commercial and industrial space with new businesses.

The council with the Board of Finance should do a line item review of all budget expenditures to determine where spending cuts and deferments can be made.

The council needs to do what it can to slow the rate of residential growth. This would include acquiring more open space, more stringent planning and zoning and continuing to offer tax reduction incentives to our seniors to remain in their homes.