Mr Rosenthal’s Memory Loss

To the Editor:

I have a confession to make. I am addicted to Newtown.

Having become a Newtown-a-holic, I find myself going to meetings nobody even knows about except those fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have been personally and privately invited.

Take the last two Finance Committee meetings for the Legislative Council. Talk about dull; all they have to say is large numbers prefaced by an occasional descriptive verb or noun. Not your typical after dinner chatter at a friend’s house.

At the last meeting, Herb Rosenthal, our esteemed first selectman, was in attendance because they were crunching numbers on the new combined bonding issue for the 5/6 school and Fairfield Hills. Being the only living and breathing town resident in attendance, I felt like everything they were talking about was life and death issues. The tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

Someone had the audacity to suggest the best way to save the town money was to separate the 5/6 school from Fairfield Hills and do the school bonding first. This way they could delay the Fairfield Hills project until more money was available to do right by Fairfield Hills and hold down on tax increase.

Herb was insistent about not separating the two projects; he actually rattled off about ten minutes of really detailed verbiage explaining and defending his position. I was very impressed!

Now I read in this week’s Bee a letter from Herb where he denies any support of the joint bonding concept or involvement in the decision to combine the projects.

Herb doesn’t look that old but maybe he had a “Senior Moment” while he was writing the letter to the editor. It is amazing what stress can do for one’s short-term memory loss, especially when it comes to a politician’s recollection.

Barry J. Piesner

34 Alpine Drive, Sandy Hook                                      February 27, 2001