Marblehead health board candidates against talking on cell phones while driving

MARBLEHEAD – The three candidates seeking a vacant three-year seat on the Board of Health – businessman Matthew Herring, lawyer Matthew Adam Karlyn and health professional Michelle Gottlieb – all want to make it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving.They all questioned whether the health board can do anything about it, but the question came their way at Monday night’s League of Women Voters Candidates Night at the Marblehead High library. The event attracted 60 candidates and voters and will be broadcast on cable TV until the May 11 election.”It should be illegal,” Karlyn said, referring to people he sees talking on phones while commuting to and from Boston. He said drinking coffee in a car is distracting enough.Gottlieb said board decisions are based on scientific evidence and studies of the brain indicate that people are more distracted when they’re talking.They disagreed on the use of pesticides to kill mosquitoes.Herring pointed out that so far this year only two human cases of West Nile Virus have been reported and criticized the use of chemical pesticides with serious health issues. He expressed serious concerns about the possible effect of spraying on children.Karlyn said a board study could determine what pesticides can be used safely.Gottlieb said the board should find ways to eliminate mosquito breeding before using pesticides.Three of the four candidates for two three-year seats on the Trustees of the Abbot Public Library said they accepted the library’s current schedule – Incumbent Peggy Geist Blass and challengers Barbara Collins Rosenberg and Phyllis Smith.Blass, an 18-year trustee, said the hours were originally reduced in response to 1991 budget cuts and then partially restored. “I’d like to see longer hours but we need more money,” she said.”I’d like to see the library open more hours on Friday evening but we need to increase the budget,” Rosenberg said. She is a literary agent who pioneered in the representation of textbook authors.”People would like to see the library open Thursday morning but the staff needs that time to get caught up,” Smith said. A 30-year school teacher, she called for maximized use of the downstairs meeting room.Incumbent Susan Indresano, who did not attend, listed a number of successful library programs in a letter read at the event by Moderator Jeffrey Shribman.The two candidates for a stipended seat on the Housing Authority – senior technology firm consultant Kris Larson and social services professional Pamela Foye – both want to see an active tenants’ association.Foye called for the hiring of an on-site case management worker and said she would like to see tenants visit MHA meetings regularly to provide feedback.Larson said communication with tenants “probably needs to improve” and said the town needs to increase the number of housing units with parking.