To the editor:

If you attend the GB Fire District (the water department) meeting tonight at 6 p.m., please walk in with an open mind and listen before deciding how to vote.

I have been attending Fire District meetings for 9 years and I have always been impressed by the commissioners and staff. They know what they are doing. It is their job, not just to provide clean water to customers at a reasonable price now, but to have one eye to the future. Every commissioner is a rate-paying customer with an incentive to keep costs down. They are not highly paid executives of a corporate water company.

I have not been following the issues being voted on tonight, and I am not suggesting that if you attend you vote one way or another. But I urge anyone who does attend to listen before deciding how to vote and to walk in assuming that the Fire District leaders have the best interests of their customers at heart.

We are all upset because Housatonic Water Works didn’t plan ahead and didn’t keep up with infrastructure improvements. Tonight’s votes are about investing now to be ready for the future.

Again, I’m not telling anyone how to vote. I haven’t decided how I’m voting. But I am walking into the meeting assuming the commissioners know what they are doing.

If you attend, I’ll see you tonight.

Ed Abrahams
Great Barrington