To the editor:

I am writing to you because I and many residents in Barrington are extremely worried about the town's rapidly rising taxes.

First of all there is the low income housing building that seems to be ever-expanding. It has become far above the means to support it beyond what has already been built. The idea, if true, that Barrington must or the town council deems to build more low income houses because other towns and cities in the state are not building low income housing is astonishingly unfair to the citizens of this town. Many of us have lived here for most of our adult lives and we are not wealthy or privileged by far. 

And now we are building a new middle school and I agree that one should be built. However, why does it have to be so very expensive with special rooms and other things that are greatly adding to an already expensive proposition and then adding on a state bond that will further increase our taxes every year?  

As has been suggested, why can’t $800,000 be found at a 1.4 percent savings in the $58 million dollar budget be used? Why isn’t the town using the $14 million in reserves and the money the schools in Barrington have left over after the school year ends? 

Finally, is it illegal to build on wetlands? A gentleman at the meeting said the land that the present school is on is a peat bog, i.e. wetland, and the reason the structure we now have has failed. The land around it is still a wetland. I don’t understand why this is allowed to happen again and at great cost to keep the next building from failing. I thought it is against the law to build on wetlands. If that is not true, or claimed to be no longer wetland, then why does the company hired to build the new school going to great lengths to keep the structure supported above the grounds?

The tax bill for many of us is becoming beyond what is affordable. 

It feels to many long-time residents of Barrington that this project is being pursued by some residents who seem to feel more privileged than others, ask for everything, get what they demand then move, leaving the rest of us holding the bag. We have put our son through the schools in Barrington. We helped to pay for a new high school and many other things through our taxes. But we feel that we are at risk of having to leave the town where we have lived all our adult lives and is home.

Barbara Flanders  

Barrington