The Annual Town Meeting:

Brevity Is The Soul Of It

By Steve Bigham

The annual town meeting in Newtown took place Monday night at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library and lasted exactly 3 minutes, 41 seconds.

With First Selectman Herb Rosenthal running late, the meeting was called to order at 7:15 pm and Town Clerk Cindy Simon nominated Selectman Bill Brimmer to moderate the meeting. Mr Brimmer accepted the nomination with grace and humor.

“As moderator, I promise a chicken in every pot,” he said.

Mr Brimmer added that the town is in fine running order thanks to a long list of fine town employees.

The annual town meeting is held each year in October for the purpose of the town receiving the annual reports from the various departments and boards and commissions. Mrs Simon reported this week that she has received 25 annual reports with 11 still outstanding.

In recent years, the town meeting has become little more than a formality, but years ago it was a major event in town. The meeting used to be held in the gymnasium at the Edmond Town Hall and was a big social gathering. These days, the meeting is nothing more than an “outdated” technical necessity.

The Charter Revision Commission has proposed eliminating the annual town meeting.

Mrs Simon remembers one town meeting in 1986 at which then-First Selectman Jack Rosenthal decided to add substance to the meeting by presenting a brief history of the annual town meeting to the 25 people in attendance.

According to Mrs Simon, that meeting lasted six minutes and is one of the longest in recent history.

The annual town meeting used to be scheduled on the evening of Election Day and people could get the results of the election, as well.

Until the 1960s, according to Mrs Simon, department heads used to read the reports at the meeting and 400-600 used to attend and ask questions.

Present at this week’s town meeting were Janet Woycik, Barbara O’Connor, and Jan Andras, each of whom was there for the Board of Selectmen’s meeting scheduled to follow the town meeting.