To the Editor:

The Gurski Homestead Commission is asking Brookfield taxpayers for $372,000 to renovate the farmhouse on the town-owned Gurski property. Despite being rejected during the recent budget cycle, this request has been approved by the Board of Selectmen and, on a tie vote broken by First Selectman Bill Davidson, approved by the Board of Finance. One half of the request would be covered by a matching grant from our already financially strapped state of Connecticut. The request will go to a town meeting on Tuesday, August 24.

The town of Brookfield does not have $372,000 in excess cash to fund this project. If approved, we will borrow the money and repay it, with interest, over a number of years. In a healthier economic climate, this project might be viewed as having some merit. But when so many hardworking taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet, this project does not make sense. Repairing dilapidated facilities is not the best use of public funds. When faced with saving The Tractor Barn at the intersection of routes 202 and 133, the private developer decided it was more cost effective to demolish the existing structure and build a new one.

We are paying on the money bonded to expand the high school and just recently approved the borrowing of funds to repair our deteriorated network of roads. The recently defeated proposal to bond funds to upgrade our park facilities will be back on the ballot in November. As a community, we have to start living within our means. Borrowing money to fund every project, regardless of cost or practicality, does not make sound fiscal sense.

I urge you to attend the special town meeting on Tuesday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. It is time to send a message to our town officials that borrowing money for frivolous projects is not the fiscal course we want to follow.

Robert A. Zinser

Brookfield, CT