There Was More To The Budget Cut

To the Editor:

The Bee published a small article entitled “VNA Faces $50 Late Fee” on page A-8 of its March 3, 2000 edition. Perhaps the article was too small for it omitted some important facts.

Specifically, while the article correctly noted that I proposed a $50 cut in the VNA’s budget request, it wrongly attributed that suggestion solely to the fact that the request had been submitted late.

While that fact did play in my suggestion, at the time I voiced two far more important reasons why I proposed a budget cut. First, when the Health District presented its budget request earlier in the evening, Health Director Mark Cooper pointed out that the Health District had kindly brought the VNA budget under its auspices, suggesting to me that the VNA’s own belated request to the town was no longer necessary. Second, when a town official present indicated that it appeared to him that the late budget request reflected a desire to preserve a “line item” entry for the VNA in the town budget, this reinforced my  belief that the allocation was not financially necessary.

Inasmuch as there were no reporters or public present at the time of the vote, I would caution The Bee against printing hearsay information. We live in a small enough town where facts generally can be verified from the source before press time.

William F.L. Rodgers

Legislative Council, District 3

(Editor’s note: The information in the referenced story was verified by Melissa Pilchard, council’s administrative subcommittee, which recommended the $50 budget cut.)

208 Hattertown Road, Newtown           March 6, 2000