To the editor:

As the new town council takes office on Dec. 5, permit me the opportunity to wish them well as some of them continue, and some of them begin, their service to the Town of Barrington. And I wish to thank the residents of the town to allow me the privilege of serving in on the council for the past fourteen years. 

I learned a lot from that service—about sewer lines, police cars, beach maintenance, cemeteries, recreation programs, senior services, property revaluation, turf fields, solar power, tax policy and so much more.   

But the most important lessons learned were about people. About those residents who looked to the town for help and received it and with their gratitude kept our focus on our shared mission. Those who came to the town with complaints and focused us on how to do better. Those who shared their expertise, time and talent to volunteer for town boards and commissions and focused us on the importance of volunteerism and on how lucky Barrington is to so many residents willing to serve in this way.

My deepest thanks go to the women and men who work for the Town of Barrington. As I’ve said many times, these civil servants make the council’s job easy.  Their commitment to delivering high-quality public services in an accountable, responsive, efficient and respectful manner deserves recognition every day. I urge your readers to thank these town employees now and again.

My thanks also to my various colleagues on the town council, stretching all the way back to 2002. From all of them, I learned something and from some of them, I learned a lot—how to ask a good question, when to admit you need more information, how to handle a raucous discussion, how to disagree with respect, and how to sit, without wilting, in those uncomfortable chairs in the steamy council chambers in mid-summer.

And thanks to my family—in particular my sons Jason and Adam—and my friends, especially those on the Democratic Town Committee, who put up with my long stories about the minute details of town policy and who supported me in so many ways during and between election seasons.

And thank you to the Barrington Times. Local journalism is hard in these times of free content and slashed budgets. Although you made things more difficult for us sometimes, it was always in service of maintaining that essential connection between citizens and their government. Keep at it.

Thanks,

June Speakman

Barrington