To the Editor:

As a Newtown citizen and father, I am writing to implore the residents of Newtown to pass the education and town budgets without further cuts.

If we cut the education budget, we may see teachers fired, and there has even been talk of closing one of our schools. The result will be larger class sizes and our reputation for excellent education — and maybe even our property values — will suffer. My children went through the Newtown school system years ago, and they are both in their late 20s now and successful and independent. Newtown is known for its quality education — it’s why most of us moved here.

We need to do everything in our power to preserve it.

It is also critically important to pass the town budget as is. If it fails, we may lose our curbside recycling program or it may be transitioned to get the garbage haulers to take on recycling too. I can’t imagine how this would not somehow come out of our pockets. In addition, the budget as is includes an additional police officer, which may well be removed if the budget is cut. Lastly, road paving may be cut back. My road is terrible and needs repaving desperately. If we cut back on road paving, I will probably have to buy new shocks for both of our cars at some point in the near future.

Please come to the middle school on April 22 and vote “yes” for both Newtown’s town and education budgets. Vote to preserve the quality of Newtown.

Richard Hungaski

Newtown