To the Editor:

The First Selectman race in Newtown pits Herb Rosenthal, an experienced town leader with a proven record of responsible fiscal management, against William Sheluck, a neophyte challenger with a spotty business record who makes many unsubstantiated charges of fiscal mismanagement against the Rosenthal administration.

A typical Sheluck campaign statement which underscores this point was a Sheluck advertisement in The Newtown Bee, September 17, which claimed that Newtown had received only $135,000 in grants for municipal projects. Wrong, Mr Sheluck. In the past two years Newtown, through Herb Rosenthal’s experienced grant management, has received more than $2.8 million in grants with another $1.6 million in the pipeline awaiting approval.

Mr Sheluck seems to think that running for office justifies any statements he wants to make regardless of accuracy. However, if he would take the time to attend the regular selectmen’s meetings he might have a better idea of what was really going on in town and then he might make his self-serving complaints with more knowledge and validity

My suggestion for Mr Sheluck is for him to revisit the Charter Revision Commission and try to clean up some of the mess left under his chairmanship.

Hamilton Brosious

46 Jeremiah Road, Sandy Hook                                October 21, 2003