Town Council Meeting recap

The main topic at last night's Town Council meeting was the Hydra proposal and I imagine that's why it was standing room only in the chambers.

A lot of people were angry that the public wasn't given the chance to speak, but personally I commend Mr. Nazarro for sticking to the clear agenda and not allowing public comment. This wasn't the first time, nor will it be the last, when the public has had to sit through a presentation and hold it's tongue. I applaud you for following the agenda, even in the face of a hostile crowd. (I also think that it was very gracious to allow the State Senators to speak, but question the grandstanding that brought them there in the first place.)

The problem, as I see it, is that there was a perception that the approval of the Hydra proposal was a foregone conclusion. There are people in town, on facebook, and in the audience last night that assumed the council was prepared to vote on the proposal and sign on the dotted line.

Many people in town are willing to jump on any hint of impropriety--let's face it, we all love a juicy scandal--and the first (or at least, most recent) interaction we had with Hydra was when Mr. Wright complained about "back-room deals." And just like that, the issue became about integrity instead of looking objectively at the claims made by Hydra and Dale Bishop.

But while facebook buzzed with questions/concerns/accusations and people wrote blog posts and letters to the editor, the Town Council continued it's due diligence. As it was said last night, the financial claims made by Hydra couldn't be completely ignored and the TC did the right thing by asking professionals to take a look at the science behind the claims. (Imagine the outrage if the Council had done nothing about this proposal--the facebook comments practically write themselves!)

Personally, I think that the TC needs to do a little self reflection and figure out why this happened. Was it the lack of a Town Administrator? Poor communication? A divided council? Shouldn't we be able to talk about proposals without insulting each other?

I'm looking at this as a trial run for when we have to engage in real debate about our waste water issues, our water needs and of course, our school facilities crisis.

It's clear that we have a lot of work to do.