Thomas R. Creamer (Chairman of the Sturbridge Board of Selectmen) and Selectman Priscilla C Gimas. wrote a Letter to the Department of Public Utilities regarding the DPU’s investigation specific to National Grid’s October storm response.

At the end of the letter is this very interesting statement:

Finally, we call upon DPU to support legislation that would reduce the impediments to the establishment of more municipally owned and operated power entities. It is our hope that the levying of fines and greater competition by way of municipal power companies are the surest way of establishing a more competitive and proactive customer service approach by National Grid.

The position of Selectman in Sturbridge is non-partisan.  Apart from his position on the board, I know that Thomas R. Creamer says that he is a Republican.  He is the kind of Republican I can like (Sharon and I both voted for him.  We also voted for Priscilla Gimas.)

If you promise to keep this a secret, I’ll tell you that the idea of a municipal power company is a Socialist idea.  Municipal power companies were mentioned in the book The “S” Word: A Short History Of An American tradition … Socialism as a successful application of socialism in this country.

Sewer systems, public health programs, municipal power plants were all public responses to what city-hall Socialists described as “the dirty and polluted legacy of the Industrial Revolution.”
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The “sewer socialists” were not averse to heavenly rewards, but felt that serving up some dessert in the here and now might be necessary to advance the cause.

Somehow, I find it hard to believe that Thomas Creamer would consider himself a socialist.  It is his ability to take pragmatic action without having ideological blinders on that I thought I detected when I voted for him.  So far, I have not been disappointed.