{"id":1488,"date":"2013-11-04T13:49:51","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T18:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2013-11-04T14:26:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T19:26:56","slug":"in-byram-township-a-clear-choice-on-november-5th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/?p=1488","title":{"rendered":"In Byram Township, a clear choice on November 5th"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust.”<\/h4>\n
— Matthias Burnett, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Norwalk, An Election Sermon, Preached at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 12, 1803<\/i><\/address>\n

Byram residents have the right and responsibility to go to the polls on November 5th and cast a vote for our mayor and a council member for the next four years. I’d like to share my thoughts on the candidates we should choose.<\/p>\n

For the council seat, there is but one choice. Marie Raffay is far and away the class of the field.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neither of the other candidates exhibits the desire, knowledge, and experience to replace her on the council. Marie has one of the most inquisitive minds of anyone I’ve ever worked with. She thoroughly and methodically researches every aspect of decisions we make that impact our community. I admire her calm, rational demeanor and fiery inner desire to make the right choices \u2013 whether popular or not.<\/strong> I look forward to continuing to serve Byram’s residents with such a hard working person.<\/p>\n

The race for mayor is an equally simple choice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One candidate is a current councilman who rarely contributes to proactive discussion; more often than not he’s trolling the press looking for an easy sound bite and trying to claim credit for other peoples work. He’s an ego-driven huckster with a small but vocal group of ill-informed followers. A less educated, younger version of another candidate, the good ol’ boy with the sense of entitlement, continuing to cost county taxpayers untold sums in frivolous lawsuits. A man who has twice in the last four years been soundly rejected by Byram voters, yet doesn’t seem to hear their voices at the ballot box. Both of these men are wrong for our community.<\/p>\n

That leaves us with a very clear choice for mayor in Byram. Jim Oscovitch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim is the most sincere, honest and hard-working man I’ve ever known. I have seen him agonize over difficult decisions, weighing the impact to both taxes and services for our residents. His dedication to his family, friends and his community is second to none, and I am proud to have Jim representing our town to county, state and federal officials as a man of integrity.<\/strong> I am even more proud to call him my friend, and my mayor.<\/p>\n

Frank Lloyd Wright said it best: \u201cI know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

No candidates for office in Byram better exemplify Wright’s belief than Jim Oscovitch and Marie Raffay. I say that as a man who has had the honor and privilege to work with Jim and Marie in various capacities for the last seven years. Byram deserves the devotion and character these two possess.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I strongly urge Byram residents to vote for Jim Oscovitch for mayor and Marie Raffay for council on November 5th. I will be doing so.<\/p>\n

Scott Olson
\nByram Township Councilman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust.” — Matthias Burnett, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Norwalk, An Election Sermon, Preached at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 12, 1803 <\/p>\n

Byram residents have the right and responsibility to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26,184,231],"tags":[44,280,276,260,32,261,278,279],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2nL7w-o0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1488"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1495,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}