Despite Parking Issues Sherborn Caucus Committee Chairman Fiske Says Caucus Went Well

Last year the Sherborn Citizens' Caucus was held at the Sherborn Community Center, where it had been for the past 10 years or so.

This year the decision was made by the Sherborn Caucus Committee to relocate the caucus to the Pine Hill Elementary School. 

The parking lot filled up quickly the night of the caucus resulting in Sherborn Police having to deny access to some from parking on Pine Hill Road. Consequently, a number of people did not get the opportunity to vote, causing some residents to get upset to the point where they of profiling voters in order to fix the caucus.

“Well I heard about it after the caucus was over. I had two phone calls and one or two people say something at the caucus,” said Sherborn Caucus Committee chairman George Fiske.

The committee anticipated there would be a higher amount of people at this year's caucus than at last year's, and cited that with the snow and construction going on in the area that the Sherborn Community Center might not have been the ideal location.

“We thought we might have some more people attending,” Fiske said.  “The school itself does accommodate more people than the community center.”

 With only 72 parking spaces,  the Pine Hill lot is known to fill up quickly and in some cases may cause a safety concern when cars begin parking on the side of Pine Hill Road. 

There were over 200 people at the caucus that night. Not including a basketball game that was taking place at the school during the caucus.

“I was told there was a children’s basketball game going on at the same time. So that might have accounted for more parking spots being taken up,” Fiske said. “I didn’t know that it was notoriously bad for parking.”

Overall, despite the parking issues Fiske said that the caucus was a success.

“I felt it went well. As I say I had not heard anything negative other than the parking and I heard about the parking after the fact,” he said. "We certainly try to make it accommodating."

Fiske said that although a decision has yet to be made, the caucus will likely go back to the Sherborn Community Center next year.

“The plan was to go back to the community center in any event,” said Fiske.