Restaurateur eyes moderator post

Thursday, February 18, 2010

MILFORD – A local restaurant owner is challenging Town Moderator Peter Basiliere for the two-year position.

Joseph Oneail, owner of Papa Joe’s Humble Kitchen, said he entered the race after a few residents asked him to.

“I have no experience. I’m a blank slate,” he said, but added he’s confident he could run a meeting.

He said he doesn’t attend town meetings, but watches them on public access television.

One of the duties of town moderator is to choose members of the Advisory Budget Committee and Oneail said his views as a fiscal conservative will influence his choices.

Oneail has owned the restaurant, which makes and sells ready-to-eat meals, for 10 years and recently moved it from downtown to Route 13 and changed the name from Humble Pie to Papa Joe’s Humble Kitchen.

Before that he owned the Milford Fish Market for four years.

Incumbent Peter Basiliere is also the school district moderator and was elected to the posts two years ago. He served on the School Board for three years in the 1990s, the final year as chairman, and on the School Budget Committee before that.

There are two other elements to the job of moderator: running meetings and running elections, and Basiliere said he loves them both.

The last presidential election “in November of 2008 was just a thrill,” he said. “More than 7,000 voters came through, the most we’ve ever had in Milford. We were registering voters right up to 8 p.m.” He said he made changes to the flow of voters to make the process more efficient.

He works as a research analyst and consultant, referees for youth soccer and is president of the Wadleigh Memorial Library Development Fund.

His philosophy of budget committee selection, he said, is to “retain people who are already on and fill it with those who are relatively new to town affairs. I want to have a balance of people who already know the budget, the history and some who will have fresh eyes. I try to get a balance of liberal and conservative, people who are open minded, and who are willing to put in the time and effort.”