Grow up Longmeadow
Date: 12/11/2014
On Nov. 17, my wife and I tuned in to the Longmeadow Select Board meeting. We were truly astonished by the way in which this meeting was conducted. It was every evident to us that there is an atmosphere of disunity and most of all disgust on the part of some members of the Select Board. If this disgust is, in fact, true, then the members should be smart enough to not let it be so evident so that the viewing public can detect the way we felt. My thought is that this form of government is not working any longer for Longmeadow, so perhaps the residents should consider changing the town charter and adopt a mayor/council form of government such as Agawam and West Springfield.
As if we didn't get enough of aggravation from this, we tuned in again to the Special Town Meeting on Nov. 18. This was truly a laughable show of stupidity on the part of some of those who spoke and also of the parties in power. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being against some issues, but for Heaven's sake, give intelligent reasons why you are opposed to the particular issue.
If you remember some years ago, a funeral parlor wanted to locate in town, specifically where the KinderCare is now located. Well, I wish you could have heard the cry against this project. There were issues such as traffic brought up, accessibility to enter and leave the establishment, noise factors, proper landscaping, etc. The biggest fear that some had was that when the deceased were embalmed, the blood would somehow find its way into our water system. Now if this isn't stupidity, I don't know what is. This project was voted down.
In summary, both the Select Board meeting and town meeting further are an indication that there has to be a better way of governing Longmeadow. I very strongly feel that the time has come to change to a mayor/council type of government. By the way, I have lived in Longmeadow since June of 1959, when we got married. When we moved in we experienced a great deal of bigotry and prejudice against Italian Catholics.
Grow up, Longmeadow! Your taxes are going up again because your little minds can’t conceive of the fact that you need expansion of tax bases to keep up with the million necessary projects that need to be done.
Ciro CamerotaLongmeadow
