No Accountability, No Respect

To the Editor:

We all need to be responsible citizens but what I have seen take place in the last few months has brought me to writing this letter.

The “Great Bogg” was depleted of an enormous amount of water at a critical time of year, causing great environmental concern from local land owners as well as the Newtown Forest Association. This was done by public works saying they were keeping Boggs Hill Road from being flooded. Since my family and I have lived here we have never seen the road flood. Because of the lack of research and following proper procedure we now have lost many living animals as well as having stagnant water for the mosquitoes to flourish in. We also learned that there was no permit attained by the Public Works Department or communication with the landowners before work was done on their property. It’s stated that there was missed communication, which can happen.

My family also called public works to question what had happened and we were told, “You and your neighbors should get an engineer and build your own dam, and then you can set the water level wherever you want.” From all this I have learned that we the people are watched and expected to follow the rules of the town, but some of the town employees are not being held accountable and obviously do not respect concerned townspeople. I am shocked by the reaction that we have gotten from the Public Works Department when trying to preserve and be environmentally responsible citizens.

Lynn Printy

135 Boggs Hill Road, Newtown                                      June 10, 2009