Retired Unionville schoolteacher Don Silknitter was not a happy citizen at the May 1 West Marlborough supervisors' meeting. Mr. Silknitter told supervisor Bill Wylie that he should have informed residents that he spoke with his East Marlborough counterparts about the possibility of "taking back" control of Route 842 from the state.
Mr. Silknitter said the only way he found out about Mr. Wylie's visit was an online account of the public meeting.
"That really ticked me off," he said.
The supervisors were taken aback by his displeasure and denied that the visit was covered up in any way.
They told him they had discussed the possible road turnback at several previous West Marlborough public meetings, and mentioned that they would need the cooperation of neighboring East Marlborough to make it happen. Mr. Wylie said his discussion with East Marlborough about the project was "purely an informal request."
"I didn't think there was anything to report," he said in his own defense. "It's all very preliminary."
"Not everything we do is newsworthy," agreed supervisor Michael Ledyard.
In addition to his rant about having to read the internet to find out about what his supervisors do when they are not at Township meetings, Mr. Silknitter made a snide and untruthful remark about the last ten years and how "not everything this Township has done has been above board." It is one thing for him to draw attention to himself because he is upset that he wasn't aware of something unofficial that Mr. Wylie (whose ethics are impeccable) has done, it's another for him to malign the character of the supervisors as a whole. Mr. Silknitter doesn't realize that the Township team is busy all month long with inconsequential efforts to serve the residents. Not only would a recitation of every deed accomplished take up too much of the Meeting, most of the residents and attendees do not require such detail from their public servants. There is a lot of finger pointing going around the neighborhood and most of the people pointing are residing in glass houses.
ReplyDeleteCathie Ledyard
Thank you, Mrs. Ledyard. I do expect high standards from our elected supervisors.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading and commenting, Cathie and Don. I'm going to write lots more about Tuesday's meeting as soon as I get past a big work crunch.
ReplyDelete