Conversation on "Another Swim-fin Drops"

not the least of which is my jaw when I think about my taxes. Property taxes, meals taxes, maybe rates for other services that I do use. You would think that part of the role of town council would be to keep people informed. How can they if they don't know themselves?

Yikes, those rates sound awfully high. You could just about get a country club membership at a place with a pool, plus the golf, for the same price for a family at some places. I have a feeling the Town bit off way more than they can chew and that the center is going to be a huge money pit. Good luck with that, the whole project was a rolling disaster since its inception.

If the prices have gone up this much in the last few months, what will they be in January 2010? Or February, March, June, or January 2011. Depending upon when it is completed. Exactly how much taxpayer money has gone into this whole thing? Not just the building, we know that is 14.8 million but everything else too.

Did you have a choice? Were you informed of how your tax money was going to be used? Did you get to give your opinion of how to spend well over $14.8 million total of YOUR tax money? Sure there are plenty of places where citizen input (a little) was allowed when it was a $3-4 million project, but public information went down as price went up. Did you bother to vote in the last Town election? Will you vote in the next one? Will you vote for a referendum that will make voting easier for people and save taxpayer money? Most of our current elected officials do not want the vote to move because they feel more ignorant people will vote. I find that a rather insulting argument. After all, they are going through extraordinary measure to keep people unaware of many things. If there is any 'ignorance' on the part of the public, it has been contributed to by specific actions on the part of the Town government to keep people uninformed.

what is meant by Sr. couple? Is it referring to people over 55, 65, 75? Would this include two adults who are not married but living together to make severely restricted income levels stretch enough to live minimally?

This is another example of the run away government project, a fevered ego in an executive position, and poor representation by elected officials. Voters are not excused for ignorance of the matter, but one can not help but feel a fast one has been pulled on them by watching a circus of supposed ignorance among the smiley glad-hand town council meetings. The town leadership obviously overstepped the public request for a pool by building a private country club on par with the town manager’s ego. I cannot help but predict some form of tax raises for the public, which are damaging to local residents and businesses during economic recession. The rates will place the use of the aquatic center out of the reach of many residents, and ultimately the hope of covering the building and operational costs outside of the revenue collected for the facility. This is an excellent reason why government entities should not attempt to go into business. I hope that town council sweats this problem out; they deserve it for not exercising caution and good judgment in this project. We need new representation on town council.

If people had been given the opportunity to know about the budget process several years ago this might not have gone down this way. Seems I remember that they didn't even want to let citizens know when meetings were being held or what would be talked about. Seems there isn't any real news reporting on this, only The Town saying ABC-123 and the "reporter" regurgitating it. Seems I've heard that the agenda doesn't really let citizens know what will be talked about or voted on in meetings. This is not a failure of citizens beyond their trusting admins and elected officers to serve OUR best interests. Higher taxes and a facilities that aren't really meant for the enjoyment of residents is what is being delivered.

the man behind the curtain is the town manager. Come-on Toto, it's time to find our ruby flippers.