Incompetence And Arrogance

To the Editor:

When is the next election? The people of Newtown need to wake up and dump the incompetent and arrogant leadership of this town. Examples of their incompetence and arrogance are everywhere – Fairfield Hills, the 5/6 school, the land on Queen Street, the space problems at Sandy Hook Elementary, the Amaral ball fields, etc.

Let’s start with Fairfield Hills. The town sends out 200 letters to developers about Fairfield Hills and not even one responds! Think about that. Our first selectman, Mr Rosenthal, provides a litany of excuses, but doesn’t mention his bungling of the process and how it appears as though he let his personal feelings about Bruce Becker get in the way of a good deal for the town. (I am in no way aligned with Bruce Becker or his firm.) Our Legislative Council chairman, Mr Rochman, even goes so far as to suggest that being ignored 200 times over may not be such a bad thing! The town should not be in the development business, especially given that the environmental exposure is such a large question mark.

The 5/6 school – Our same two “leaders” want to link the vote of the 5/6 school to the vote on Fairfield Hills! As a result, these two are willing to risk $11million in state funding of the school. This is the height of arrogance. The parents of this town should be outraged that these two would attempt to link the fate of a much-needed school to a white elephant whose handling by the so-called leadership of this town has been slipshod at best.

The land on Queen Street – First, town leaders misled the townspeople about the intent of the purchase. Then the town accountant says it would actually cost more money to sell the property than to keep it and pay interest on the debt because families may move in and have kids go to school which costs money. If this is the case, the town should be buying up land all over town to prevent residential development. Am I the only person who sees how silly and weak an argument this is?

Space problems at Sandy Hook Elementary – Nobody saw this coming? I would guess that the 5/6 school would help alleviate this, but Messrs Rosenthal and Rochman are willing to risk killing the 5/6 school to get their way on Fairfield Hills.

Amaral ball fields – The town pays an exorbitant price for land which is largely unusable unless an equally exorbitant amount is expended to alleviate water problems. Who did the due diligence here?

All of these things have occurred over approximately the last two years. How can so many things be messed up so badly in such a short period of time? People of Newtown, you are paying high taxes – you should demand more for your money. The next time you have a chance to vote, send the politicians of this town a message – they had better start keeping their constituents’ interests in mind instead of their own narrow agendas.

Richard Abbott

7 Sweetbriar Lane, Sandy Hook                                   April 23, 2001