Spending must be controlled

During the past four years, a number of taxpayers have met with the CV-S Board of Education and participated during the budget process to determine why the budget increases three-to-four times the rate of inflation, while student enrollment continues to decline.

We have analyzed and recommended changes that would have minimized the budget acceleration but would not have impacted anyone’s job or salary.

Not one single recommendation to limit excessive budget growth within that time frame has ever been accepted. Of note, over this same time period is the fact that neither the CV-S board nor the administration has presented a single alternative solution or plan for controlling costs.

The administration must be the proponent of quality education, but it demonstrates minimal consideration in its role of steward of public funds. Although courteous, the board has stonewalled any progress toward limiting excessive budget growth. That is its right to do so, but it is also our right as taxpayers to take appropriate action by involving the voters.

Taxes continue to escalate beyond the cost of inflation, creating a hardship on many families. This lack of sensitivity toward the community is at the forefront of the frustration felt by many of us who are involved in bringing information to the attention of the public.

The taxpayer will continue to vote down budgets that simply rubber-stamp demands for exorbitant increases in educational costs without any accountability or clear connection to quality education.

We encourage public debate on these issues so that families with children in CV-S will know that we not only support education but we also demand fiscal accountability.

Who are we? We are your neighbors, families with children in CV-S, teachers, farmers, etc., who are frustrated that no recognition or progress in controlling spending is addressed in the budget.

Wilfred Bruneau

Cooperstown

Most of us have driven down a country road with beautiful blue skies, warm temperatures and fresh air blowing in our windows. A perfect day for a county drive _ only to have it ruined by a dust cloud engulfing our car.

Did you have to close your windows so you didn’t choke on the dust? Did you even hesitate to take that road because it was dirt?

Well, it’s been almost a year since "the flood," but some families are still recovering from it. Almost a year later, Pines Brook families (and other areas, too) are reminded every time someone drives by that they have a long way to go. What was pavement in front of their homes is now dirt.

While you drive the speed limit, that dust cloud following your car covers everything in sight. Their homes and their property are covered in dust and dirt. There’s no fresh air in their homes because they have to keep the windows closed because of the dust.

Did you take a moment to watch that dirt cloud move toward the children playing in the yard? Did you watch as the couple walking on the road turned their heads and held their breath while you drove past and lost them from sight in the dust? Did you know that if you drove half as fast that you could help keep the dust down?

It would only take a few minutes of your time to drive slower on those roads, but it could make a world of difference to these families. They could actually enjoy being outside of their homes. You’ll know by looking in your rearview if it’s slow enough.

These families have been flooded; they don’t need to be dusted, too.

Cathy W. Armstrong
DeLancey

The very ideals that we will soon celebrate on Independence Day appear to be at peril in the town of Meredith.

Newspaper accounts have well documented the recent decisions by the town board to disregard the diligent work of the planning board and the concerns of more than 800 town residents and property owners. Our town may soon own the twin distinctions of having an ordinance that every industrial wind development company can peddle to other towns and a planning board that has been eviscerated of its planning capability. And all with only the minimum of public comment.

Now, apparently public dissent is endangered as well. As anyone who has traveled recently through our town has noticed, the landscape is littered with green signs supporting industrial wind development "" under the guise of "clean energy." These supporters certainly have every right to express these sentiments and, indeed, it is a part of our American tradition.

It is disturbing, however, when signs expressing a view contrary to the position of the town board are first vandalized and then stolen from a neighbor’s lawn, as happened during this past weekend. Trespassing and theft are still actions that we do not condone as a community. While I am certain that no member in such a position of public trust as our town board had anything to do with these hoodlum-like activities, their arrogance and dismissive attitude toward those in disagreement with them has set the stage for such actions.

I hope as we move ahead "" on this issue and as a community "" we can agree to act with an improved sense of decorum and respect.

Our founding fathers understood this concept well. Perhaps we can better emulate them in the coming months.

Ray Pucci
Meredith