Letter: The quagmire has just gotten worse

Posted 10/11/17

To the editor:

The town council and its president, and for that matter the rest of you elected members of the town government, remember that every decision you make, whether it has to do with …

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Letter: The quagmire has just gotten worse

Posted

To the editor:

The town council and its president, and for that matter the rest of you elected members of the town government, remember that every decision you make, whether it has to do with zoning laws and the enforcement of them, town services, low income housing, the school system, town properties, traffic laws, town recreation, and the list goes on, has an effect on everyone who owns a home in this town. 

It goes without saying, at least for me, that no segment of this small society should be forgotten or asked for information that is personal and the rightful property of that person, or blatantly left out of a decision that could have an adverse effect on their ability to live here. 

All of the town’s affairs, whatever they may be, have an effect on all our affairs. Any one segment of the town’s affairs should not be prioritized over another for this could weaken other essential parts of the town’s life. The government must respect those who put their trust in them when they were elected. Favoritism or inflated egos should not have place in our government for that could spell the ruination of this town.

Considering just the things that have been thrown at us just this year — like school issues, and planning to build a new school on the very same piece of property that was the cause of the demise of the old school, the $1.2 million for school programs voted on by no more than a segment of the town’s population in a meeting with no possible chance to rethink the task at hand and not voted on at the poles, the low income housing issues, building codes and overbuilding and on and on — I am surprised that we are still standing. 

So to sum it all up, the quagmire has just gotten worse. 

Now, one of the town committees or councils is asking senior citizens who have been eligible for the “Elderly Exemption" in the past, and the soon to be retired residents are being asked to give what is considered by many of us to be personal information such as, social security, bank or other interest bearing accounts, pensions, insurance annuities, sickness or accident insurance, stocks and bonds and all other income. Anyway, some of the info they are asking for they already have. 

Many of these things are the kinds of things that all of us have been encouraged to do towards future retirement throughout our lives to make our retirements more secure and to let our future retirement not be a burden to ours families or for ourselves. 

This whole thing is so offensive. It is not the mark of good governing. 

This issue could be based on the number of years lived in this town and having paid taxes for as many years to this town. That is the way many other towns in our country do this. I hope there is no motive for this indefensible action. If the comparison that a family with children in our public schools cost the town $27,000 a year as compared to households with no children living in the home costing $3,000 annually is correct, maybe we should hold the town government to a fixed income so the government could get their spending problems under control.                                                                                                                           “How far you go in life depends on your being tender to the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the week and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” — George Washington Carver

Barbara Flanders   

Barrington

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