Brookfield Comes Together, be it by Storm or Election Day

One of the few shining moments that gleamed in the wake of Hurricane Irene and this early (very early!!!) winter storm was when I saw my community come together for the common good. I saw neighbors helping each other with food, warm shelter, tree and debris removal, hot showers, or even just a willingness to stretch a long extension cord from a neighbor's generator into an adjoining home to run the furnace or refrigerator.

Brookfield is a community that cares. We want to not only grab the piece of New England small town bliss for ourselves and our families, but we want that for our neighbors as well. We want to see happy children grow and learn. We want to see an active and involved senior citizen population as well. We want to see paved roads, maintained parks, an efficient Town Hall, a fully staffed and equipped police department and more. We also want this at an affordable rate and have it all managed in an efficient way.

Well, in Brookfield, we are certainly doing well by those standards.

This coming election, we are faced with a multitude of choices. How fortunate we are to have so many willing to participate (for nearly all volunteer positions) in our town government. So, while I certainly mean to make my personal preferences clear, I would not want to speak negatively about anyone who is willing to do such hard work on behalf of the community. But having choices means finding a reason to choose some before others.

Following the theme of working together as a town, Brookfield's Best Candidates has endorsed a list of eight registered Republicans, seven registered Democrats and three unaffiliated candidates for the election on Tuesday. This non-partisan collection represents the best chance for our boards and commissions to work well together for our collective benefit.

The town has done well these past few years with moving things forward. The roads are being paved, a new senior center has been built, and Kids Kingdom II is underway. Likewise, our schools have moved forward due to the efforts of a great staff and administration and a very diverse Board of Education that has worked extremely well together. There are new contracts in place for most of the BOE employees that are in line with the current economic times, but that also keeps us competitive with other towns so that we can attract and retain the most talented professionals. Furthermore, the iPads have been rolled into BHS, foreign language has expanded to younger grades at WMS, class sizes have been reduced at HHES after seeing drastic increases in prior years, and CES is exploring full day kindergarten. Despite all of these advancements (to name a few) the proposed BOE budget last year was one of the lowest proposed budgets by any previous BOE.

As cited in the New York Times some months ago, one would be hard pressed to find a better "bang for your buck" than we have here in Brookfield. That quality of life that we desire so badly and have worked so hard for must be embraced and protected all while measures still need to be taken to keep the town moving forward. The way I see it, a collaborative group that would best keep this momentum and keep the town working together is best represented by the list put forth by Brookfield's Best Candidates. That list is:

• First Selectman — Bill Davidson (U)
• Selectman — Howard Lasser (D)
• Board of Finance — Robert Marconi (D) and Karen Lemire (U)
• Board of Education — Scott McCarthy (R), Paul Checco (R), Victor Katz (D), Susan Queenan (D) and Harry Shaker (R)
• Planning Commission — Jon Van Hise (D) and David Frankel (R)
• Zoning Commission — John Varda (U) and Francis Lollie (D)
• Zoning Board of Appeals — Marin Flynn (R) and Scott Waldman (D)
• Board of Assessment Appeals — John Hooker (R)
• Town Treasurer — David Scribner (R)
• Town Clerk — Joan Locke (R)

This is the team that will keep Brookfield moving forward and who will keep Brookfield working together for the betterment of our community.

Let's come together once again. 

See you at the polls on Tuesday.