ON THE RIGHT LANE: Windhams great divide

Posted: Friday, March 21, 2014 1:52 pm | Updated: 1:58 pm, Fri Mar 21, 2014.

This is a column that I do not relish to write but living in a town without the balance of Ying and Yang or no sense of Feng Shui, it is high time for our elected members of the Windham Town Council to cast off their personal gains and differences in order to move Windham into the future.

For several years, the citizens of Windham have witnessed Town Council meetings that have shown how bad a town could operate at its worst. I really hoped that the present Windham councilors would be a welcome change but now its obvious that positive change is probably going to be hard to come by.

At the same time, one thing that is really noticeable in Windham is the lack of dedicated volunteers for the towns various committees and boards and the recent actions over reappointing someone to the Planning Board will no doubt cause even more to consider not volunteering for the town. Whats even worse is when town government makes selection of committee members so narrow as to include only those that will reinforce what the town government wants, as was the case with the selection of a new sewer committee. I really dont care if one wants to blame it on the town manager or the town councilors or both, its a problem in Windham that just keeps rolling along year after year and I am not the only one that believes its happening.

It is my belief that all of this began with a previous Town Council that succeeded in approving appointments to committees that might benefit, if not themselves, their friends. There is so much knowledge about that available to the public that I know I dont have to mention which councilors or which members of a particular committee. Its all there for all to see, one just has to look and listen. That was evident during the council meeting of March 11 when someone was reappointed to the Windham Planning Board although if members of a previous Town Council were still in office, that would never have happened. I wish all of this hogwash were hidden under a table so I hate to say some friends from other towns are aware of what is happening in Windham.

It is now time for the Windham town councilors to form a solid foundation in order to create a better atmosphere for the citizens of Windham. To this day, Windham still doesnt have a state-approved comprehensive master plan. Whether we like it or not, that is state mandated yet years have gone by with little to no action to correct that problem. Windham has spent lots of money on various studies that in the end accomplished absolutely nothing. Please dont blame all of this on the present councilors as they have enough time to prove whether theyre going to be the solution or the continuation of the problem. However, it is time for solid progress rather than piecemeal Band-Aids to cover problems as they arise.

Its beyond mid-March and the Windham town councilors are awaiting the town managers proposed budget for the next fiscal year. It appears that this years budget discussions will not be any different from those of the past. Wait for the managers budget, hack it to death and add what they fancy instead. I firmly believe that the budget process starts as soon as the new budget goes into effect. Theres certainly no lack of people who want to spend money for recreation areas or for parks. I have no doubt that municipalities will suffer from the state subsidies we received in the past and were so accustomed to getting.

So we will see if the Windham councilors come together over the town budget or continue the animosity that continues to surface from time to time when they meet.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham is not shocked when elected officials forget why they were elected.

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ON THE RIGHT LANE: Windhams great divide