Longmeadow Town Meeting April 29

At this year's Annual Town Meeting, Longmeadow voters will have the opportunity to consider an independent Water & Sewer Commission. Article 29 will ask town meeting participants to make a non-binding decision to reestablish an independent, three-member elected Water & Sewer Commission and to remove such present responsibilities from the Board of Selectmen. The proponent of the warrant article states that, "Recent events have shown that the members of the Select Board do not have the time or expertise to oversee the town's water and sewer infrastructure."

"This article amends the Town Charter to establish an independently elected three-member water and sewer commission."

The town's experiences with the Select Board over the last several years in responsibly and economically managing the water & sewer infrastructure and setting appropriate rates should be seriously evaluated when deciding on this issue. The recent water & sewer rate debacle, and the now recommended $40,000,000 or more water and sewer infrastructure upgrade, results in a sobering seriousness to this warrant article. Citizens will be deciding if the interests of Longmeadow would be better served with an independent board of Water & Sewer Commissioners that would be able to dedicate 100 percent of their responsibilities for water & sewer issues rather than the present system that due to considerable time constraints, limits the Board of Selectmen to only a part time role.

Please attend the April 29 Longmeadow Annual Town meeting that will be held at Longmeadow High School at 7 p.m.

Curt M. Freedman, PE, CEM

Longmeadow