Letters from Town Residents: Jennifer

October 16, 2021

To the Editor:

At the October 4 Town Council meeting, the Council approved $9,500 for consultant services to prepare a public presentation of a Safety Improvement Concept Plan for Main Street. This includes the installation of a sidewalk from St. John’s School to Starbucks.

Remember when the Starbucks application was before the Planning and Zoning Commission? Numerous residents pointed out this safety issue (among others) and asked the P&Z Commission to require the developer to install that sidewalk as a condition of receiving approval to build.

The Republican controlled Planning and Zoning Commission declined to listen to the citizens and make the sidewalk a requirement. We will now get a matching grant for the installation of the necessary sidewalk. Wouldn’t it have been nice to use that money elsewhere, had the Starbucks’ developer already cured the safety issue?

The recurring theme here is that the Republican controlled Council and P&Z Commission ignore citizen concerns only to learn later that the citizens know what they are talking about. Many unaddressed concerns end up costing the citizens down the road one way or another.

It’s time for a change. Vote for all the Independent Party candidates on November 2

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Jennifer, Watertown, CT