And yet, after 18 months of seeking a different result from the same action, and getting the same denial, Hook & Ladder has now decided to engage in lengthy and costly suits against the town and the borough in order to overturn those denials. In their appeals to Danbury Superior Court, Hook & Ladder has claimed that the town and borough regulatory commissions have acted illegally, arbitrarily, and in abuse of their regulatory authority. So after having been denied three times, and after having earned the collective ire of all Sugar Street residents, Hook & Ladder hopes for a different outcome, and will now take on the totality of the Newtown community, which they are supposed to serve instead of suing. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

Our tax dollars will now be used to defend two completely frivolous legal attempts to overthrow the lawful and unanimous decisions of independent town and borough commissions. So for all those of you who are on the Legislative Council, the Board of Finance, the Board of Selectmen, or any other board or department that has authority over the use of our tax dollars, I ask that you remove from the CIP or the general budget any funds for Hook & ladder until they drop their frivolous action. In addition, for all those of you considering donating your hard earned cash to Hook & Ladder, know that your funds will partially fuel these suits against the town and the borough. So I call on you to stop all donations to Hook & Ladder until they drop their suits against the town and borough.

And finally, I call on the Scudder Smith Family Partnership and the Borough of Newtown Land Trust to irrevocably retract their offer to donate land on Sugar Street to Hook & Ladder. For without the offer of that land, Hook & Ladder’s application to build becomes null and void, and so would their suits against the town and the borough. It’s time to stop this insanity once and for all.

Francois de Brantes

13 Sugar Street, Newtown                                       February 28, 2011