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Isolated

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The town government and staff are becoming more isolated from the citizens.

Example, council meetings. 1. No in-person citizen participation. 2. It is not easy to participate with the zoom application. 3. There is no call to the public to speak on a topic not on the agenda. This is the most disturbing new aspect of the town’s connection to the citizens, given their history of approving projects rejected by the citizens. A couple of distinct examples come to mind of late. There was the Daybreak debacle, which went down to an overwhelming defeat in a referendum. And now, while no one notices, they continue to give a pass to the doctors building the hospital.

This was a good project in which the surrounding residents invited the doctors into the neighborhood. Somehow the town feels compelled to allow them to run all over them, with broken promises and skirting town ordinances.

Why does this matter? Because with this governing isolation, most of the citizens don’t even know this is happening. The town government has used COVID as the excuse for isolation from the citizens. They’ve closed the Community Center when they actually could have the council meetings there, with plenty of social distancing and community participation. I’ll bet most don’t know that there was another smaller car show on the avenue that was denied by the Town recently.

Businesses have learned to adapt, so should town government. The mayor and council work for us. They should not be allowed to operate in a falsely-created vacuum. We, as citizens, should be free to enjoy our town and have a say in our governance with elected officials if we so choose.