Why do we need a new town hall?

Business runs as usual at the Litchfield Town Hall and Bantam Annex. This proposal (for a new town hall) precedes the internet and market crash of 2008. Let’s re-evaluate our needs. Why, with so much of government being automated, do we need all of this square footage? Apparently, we need a town hall now, because that is what they had decided then.

Days before Christmas, I must tell my kids, “No we can’t have that. It’s not in our budget, you must wait.” That’s what we need to say to our elected officials.

I’m annoyed that teachers are asked to wait for increases they are due, especially with a $1 million asset, decades after an opportunity — which could still happen — to merge schools, give our kids a real high school experience, and leave us with an exceptional town hall: Center School.

Donating the Annex offers a false sense of charity. Families with lower income (just not enough to qualify for affordable housing) buy a home here to send their kids to good schools, then pay more taxes to support an extravagant town hall. Our taxes will never go down with another building project to pay for. Maybe some people want to keep our taxes high to keep the riff-raff out . ... But what if the project never gets funded by a state without money? Sell the parcel at current market value, and support our schools!

I’m not sold. I don’t see the value. I see a lot of cost.

I’ll be voting no and no.

— Meg Finn, Bantam