Debate at Enfield High

Last night, the 19 candidates for Town Council (9 Democrats, 9 Republicans, and one independent) squared off at Enfield High School in the first and only debate among town council candidates. First of all, let me thank Tom Duffy and Enfield High School for hosting the forum, and also thanks to Amy Witbro and the Enfield Youth Vote for coordinating the program. Thanks also to the Enfield High Students who put the event on. The students who moderated the event and asked the questions did an outstanding job.

One thread that was interesting about the debate was that in most cases, most of the candidates pretty much agreed on nearly every issue, albeit sometimes approaching matters from a different perspective.

In District 1, each of us was asked one question, with the other two candidates getting a chance to respond. The two more interesting questions revolved around my independent candidacy and whether or not the voters in District 1 would be well served by an independent. My answer was yes, that I felt that I have proven that I can work across party lines in a spirit of cooperation and common purpose in accomplishing the goals and objectives desired by people in the district. I have a very good relationship with a majority of the people either on the current council, or running for council, and I would be able to work with either side, no matter if Republicans or Demcrats are in the majority.

Not surprisingly, both Mr. Bosco and Mr. Barry disagreed. Joe said that he was “never told what do do” and voted his conscience. That is good, neither was I. My point in running as an independent was that I became tired of people looking over my shoulder and “Monday morning quarterbacking” my decisions. I did not appreciate 6:30am phone calls questioning my votes on particular issues. Further, my current dissatisfaction with the major parties stems from what is going on statewide and nationally primarily, in addition to my previous issues in Enfield. Mr. Barry also felt that someone needed to belong to a party in order to be effective. Unfortunately this is the mindset that pervades our system. It isn’t the person….it’s the party…..and that’s a shame.

Mr. Barry was asked about his open space initiative, and spoke of walking trails, open fields for playing children and so on. I don’t disagree with him in principle, although to be honest, I don’t see too many children playing outside as it is. That is a story for another day. 

Any type of development such as he is proposing would require an investment, which Enfield simply cannot afford to do now. District 1 in particular has little in the way of recreational facilities, save the fields at the schools (JFK, Parkman and Stowe) and the small park at the end of Neelans Rd. For winter time, you can add the sledding hill on Town Farm Rd. That is it. We had the Mancuso Recreational area that was proposed for Town Farm Rd. by the former landfill, however that sat vacant and undeveloped for years, to the extent that the Mancuso family (rightfully so) asked to have the sign removed.

With District 1 having a plethora of undeveloped industrial land, perhaps one way to acquire open space recreational areas would be to offer incentives in the form of tax abatements in exchange for businesses developing such areas in this area of town. It would be a win-win situation; the town would increase it’s tax base while at the same time acquiring open space recreational space for town residents.

On a townwide basis, much was made about the crime rate, especially in Thompsonville. I wish that I had a chance to address that because I believe that there is an enormous misconception as to how the problem should be addressed. Simply throwing additional police at the problem puts a bandaid on the problem, but will not solve it. Enfield needs to reestablish a legitimate community policing model in order to bring about the change that people are asking for. The current approach is simply not working. It needs to be a partnership of police, municipal agencies, business owners and residents in order to improve the quality of life issues in Thompsonville which has caused the area to sink further into ruin. Then and only then can this area be turned around.

This will likely be my last post prior to the election. With that in mind, I wish all candidates for municipal office the best of luck next Tuesday and I look forward to seeing how it all comes out.

Advertisement