Regarding Proposed Ordinance Changes
To the Editor:
Regarding the agenda of our current legislative council — it seems to me the majority party aims to take us backwards, undoing what had been settled issues for years. The bag ban and fracking waste proposed changes to the ordinance currently in place are unnecessary, to say the least.
Take the bag ban … we could simply use the Costco model. You shop there, you take your items to your car. Who can’t be bothered to carry reusable bags? It’s impossible for me to believe this is such an inconvenience.
Fracking waste? Good grief! Wonder who would benefit from this proposed debacle?
It seems to me that these are not real issues important to most Newtown residents. We have real issues … the school bus driver shortage, the property reevaluations should the mill rate not be lowered. Garbage/recycling concerns that are an increasing problem, not just here, but statewide.
Let’s not propose solutions to non existing problems.
Perhaps this committee should focus on the Newtown Go Green mission statement instead of returning to old grudge issues that only stir up the pot.
What’s next? Redo the seat belt ordinance? Smoking in public spaces? You can see how petty, unnecessary and harmful this type of “leadership” could get.
As QStorm (whoever that may be) wrote in response to an editorial letter, “Elections have consequences.” I would add DIRE consequences. When only 9 percent of our voters bothered to vote in 2021 (according to the News-Times), this is the outcome.
Next vote is 2023!
Geraldine Carley
Newtown
Editor’s Note: According to the Newtown Registrars as reported in The Newtown Bee, the turnout for the 2021 elections was 34.68% of Newtown’s 19,371 eligible voters.
‘Dire’ is in the eye of the beholder. Drop the 10 cent bag fee. The state trumps the town on this.
I agree our Legislature has more important things to do. But they have already scheduled debate on changing the name of the Thames River to the Pequot River. (Something they cannot do as that requires the approval of the USCGS and Congress — remember when Alaska wanted to rename Mt. McKinley?) Or again it was brought up to make the lollipop the state candy (they spent 4 hours of debate on that last session).
The Bag fee is just another tax. How much does the State or Town get from it? I am more concerned with the expansion of the $.05 bottle deposit to Tea and Sports Drinks. I was charged it and tried to return the bottles to a local supermarket. I was told the supermarket does not accept returns, it is a private service that maintains the machines and they have no control over which bottles or cans are accepted. But they cannot accept them directly. And the local ordinance is superseded by the State Law.
Fracking waste. Is this a solution in search of a problem. Is fracking done anywhere near where it would be economical to bring it in? And again, there is a State Law on both fracking and the disposal of waste. Seatbelts and smoking? Again State Law.
I would ask the Newtown Police if there are even spaces on this on a local ordinance ticket. Do we have parking tickets in Newtown? Or do they write a state infraction ticket for “all municipal ordinances” and let the State collect the fines?