After reading the columns from Aldermen Tripp, Stowe, Marini and Adamowski, I want to provide some advice from the viewpoint of a resident, father, volunteer coach and someone who has a great deal of love for the City of Ansonia.
First off, I want to thank BOAT for increasing the budget for our schools and recognizing the absolute importance of education.
Without good schools and a strong police presence, our town will be an unattractive town for potential home buyers. One of the first things families look at when considering moving into a neighborhood is the school system and safety of a town.
If these are not up to par, more than likely these families will look to start their lives elsewhere. Before our representatives put the budget together, they should have given the necessary 3.7% increase to the Board of Education and then made the appropriate adjustments with the other municipal departments.
For example, they could have taken $350,000 from Capital Improvements, $50,0000 from another municipal department and taken those funds and redirected them to the Board of Education.
As a result, we would not have had as large of an increase in our mill rate because we would have stayed within our means.
Now is the time to unite, instead of pointing fingers at each other and playing politics.
Saying that Ansonia is riding the highway to hell is not a way to promote our town nor is it how we want our town to be perceived.
We need to learn from this and recognize that education and the safety of our neighborhood should be our most important priority with all due respect to the other municipal departments.
The next time we draft a budget, we should look at the current needs of our community and its residents and build the budget around that.
Sincerely,
Sal Hanaif
Ansonia Resident
