Water & Sewer & Assessors--not very green decisions made on 3/17

In the Longmeadow News, the Select Board is reported to have made several cuts to the proposed budget.

Among those cuts, related to green issues:

Water Budget.

The Select Board does not care about

-timely valve replacement

-Water Meters

-hydrants & main maintenance

WHAT??? As town leaders responsible for basic services, these folks (half of whom don't want the job any way) would rather let hydrants fail us and water mains leak. Didn't they pay attention to the Tighe & Bond study??

Sewer Department Budget.

We have many sewer backups. Some of our sewers are made of brick. Yes, sewers. One of our former Water & Sewer commissioners admitted that, plus the fact that there was no preventative maintenance program for water & sewer....one of the reasons for DEP fines and the creation of a new consolidated DPW.

Even a consolidated DPW cannot maintain sewers if the town Select Board does not provide funding.....Let's hope Town Meeting has more wisdom.

Half of our sewers are 50+ years old, most are made of asbestos or clay.

Also related to green issues: In-house Assessor

This tells me that the Select Board would rather:

-see evaluations done every 10 years,

-lose tax dollars, and

-spend more: pay $236K (above the $180K we paid last time) for an outside consultant.

Short-sighted budgeting.