More Work

Needs To Be Done

To the Editor:

At the December 3 Board of Selectman meeting, [Selectman Paul] Mangiafico introduced a motion to continue with the construction of a new town hall at Fairfield Hills, which was seconded by [Selectman Herb] Rosenthal and carried by a 2-1 vote in favor of his motion. The dissenting vote came from First Selectman Joe Borst. He said he did so because he had no evidence of why the new town hall should not go forward. He, however, refused to give Mr Borst the time to come up with some objections, should they exist.

Prior to that, in an excessively long oratory, he politically positioned himself as not caring one way or another. What mattered, he said, was that a decision be made. Mr Borst had clearly stated that he was meeting with several people Thursday [December 6] to review the situation at Fairfield Hills and that he would expedite his findings immediately thereafter. It might take a week or so to collect sufficient information to propose an intelligent solution. It is also be important to recognize that Mr Borst was not against building a new town hall, he just wanted the time to collect the facts and fulfill his promise to the voters. That was not good enough for Mr Mangiafico. He kept pressing Mr Borst for a specific time. Keep in mind that Mr Mangiafico was Joe Borst’s Republican running mate and a strong supporter of all Republican candidates. I guess that was election rhetoric. Now, any reasonable man (without an agenda) would have accepted Mr Borst’s statements and postponed a decision until the next board meeting; however, Mr Mangiafico, who is a puppet to no one, pulled from his papers a prepared motion moving that the new town hall project continue. I wonder if he had a prepared statement for postponing the construction of a new town hall, just in case the political winds blew that way.

It was interesting to note that the new town hall was not on the agenda, however almost all of Mr Rosenthal’s new town hall supporters were in attendance at this 5:30 pm meeting — Mr Kortze, Mr Rodgers, Mr Geckle, and Ms Dent, just to name a few. Do you think there is a connection here? Is it possible that the political machine that orchestrated a new town hall orchestrated this motion? Just some unsubstantiated thoughts.

It is disappointing to me, as it must be to other citizens, to recognize that although we replaced Mr Rosenthal, as he suggested if we didn’t like what he was doing, we failed to replace the mechanism that continues to give him power. It appears a lot more work needs to be done.

A.P. Roznicki

169 Hanover Road, Newtown                                   December 5, 2007