To the editor:

In his letter of Sept. 28, 2016, “Teachers vs. Bricks,” Chad Mollica ends with a question: “Is this any way to run a railroad?” Well, no it’s not, because we’re not running a railroad here. We’re working together to manage our small town democracy, and in a democracy the opinions of the few shouldn’t control the fates of the majority.

Mr. Mollica’s letter reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of a number of issues, but I’ll focus on just one. In our town, the biggest decisions are made by all of the voters. Every year in May, the municipal and school budgets are presented to the citizens of Barrington for voter approval at the financial town meeting. Such meetings are often called the purest form of American democracy.

Because replacing the middle school is such a big decision, our form of government calls for every voter in town to cast his or her ballot for or against it. That apparently poses a problem for some who fear that our form of democracy might result in the majority voting for the middle school.  

As Mr. Mollica notes, in July, I along with councillors Kate Weymouth and Mike Carroll, voted to move the proposed middle school bond to the ballot so that the voters could decide if they wished to commit these resources, to make that investment, in the construction of a new middle school. Many voters in town are beginning to study this issue, to make up their own minds.

Councillors Strong and Primiano voted against letting the voters decide.  

Thank goodness that there was not another like-minded council member on the council or Ms. Strong and Mr. Primiano would have had the three votes they needed to effectively deny the citizens of Barrington their right to weigh in on this extraordinarily important issue.

That’s no way to run a democracy.

June Speakman

Barrington