The 6:30 PM meeting in the Assembly Chambers on Thursday being billed as a “Town Hall” meeting is anything but a Town Hall meeting. It would be better described as a “Dog and Pony Show” by the contractor the Borough Assembly has already decided to hire unanimously at the special Assembly meeting last week. It's a process that is fast tracking an agenda that the community has not discussed or asked for because politicians have dangled “infrastructure” money in front of government officials’ eyes to the point of hypnosis. “Grab the money. Damn the consequences.”

Our local public process is completely broken. These Assembly members are not representing me, you, or a sustainable future, either economically or environmentally. I learned at a previous Ports and Harbors Committee meeting that the whole point of combining Phases 1-3 of the project was to fast track permitting. Get the money, get the permit, and it becomes damn near impossible to stop the momentum of endless construction with big machines and pie-in-the sky dreams.

I agree 100% with Tom Morphet that large projects of over $10 million must be put to a vote of the public before moving forward. We as a community must have a say in our present and in our future.

Kathleen Menke