Go to town meetings and don’t just write letters to the editor

Editor:

In response to Hans Hyde and Thom Jennings in the Letters to the Editor, I find it hard to believe that both of you (and I’m sure a lot more) have their own opinions of what is going on in the Town of Gaines.

But you won’t find the whole truth in the Letters to the Editor. My question to you is, how many Town Board meetings has you and other taxpayers gone to in the last year? I think most of the taxpayers will say none. And I say that because when I am home, I go to almost all of them.

It seems the same few tax payers are there consistently, and one or two will show up for their own issues. Such as one taxpayer asked a question as to why her water levy was always changing significantly, and so, the last Town Supervisor looked in to the situation. And I’m sure you’ll remember she found that the town was over levying the water districts more than the debt amount. The amount was $205,000 over an 8-year period.

One water district was so extreme the extra money paid off the whole debt and paid down the others. Then there was the 60 million gallons of water loss. No one to bill $170,000 worth of use and no one was looking. What is going on now without that watchful eye?

It seems to me that there’s a lot going on in the Town of Gaines that needs looking into. And now we find out there is over $250,000 owed to the Town of Carlton, so you’re right, there is something going on in the Town of Gaines – it looks like Carlton too and of course there is Murray. I’m sure there are a lot of questions that need to be asked by you and all taxpayers but, you need to get involved to find out the whole truth.

It looks to me that the only way to find out what wrong in the Town of Gaines (and it looks like other towns), is to go ask questions and demand answers rather than sitting back and writing Letters to the Editor. Of course, it is your Town and your money, but we will all pay the price.

Ray Burke

Gaines