Annual Town Meeting Is Oct. 2

The annual town meeting will be held Monday, at 7:30 pm, at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library.

The meeting is held for the purpose of the town receiving the annual reports from the various departments and boards and commissions.

The Board of Selectmen meeting will follow shortly after.

In recent years, the town meeting has taken little more than 90 seconds to complete. However, the town meeting used to be a major event in town. The meeting used to be held in the gymnasium at the Edmond Town Hall and was a big social event. These days, the meeting is nothing more than an “outdated” technicality. The last Charter Revision Commission actually considered removing it from the charter, but finally opted to keep it in.

Town Clerk Cindy Simon remembers one town meeting in 1986 at which then-First Selectman Jack Rosenthal decided to add substance to the meeting by presenting a brief history of the annual town meeting to the 25 people in attendance.

According to Mrs Simon, that meeting lasted six minutes and is one of the longest in recent history.

The annual town meeting used to be held on the evening of Election Day and people could get the results of the election, as well.

Up until the 1960s, according to Mrs Simon, department heads used to read the reports at the meeting and 400-600 used to attend and ask questions.