To the editor:
I read with utter dismay The Berkshire Edge’s account of the most recent Select Board meeting in Great Barrington. Dismay, but not surprise.
Residents cut off from their town by the most recent Great Barrington bridge closure (this time on Brookside Road) were subject to a Board that seems more intent on looking backward than forward. As the Edge reported, after giving exactly zero reassurance or credible hope to her own residents, Vice Chair Leigh Davis, appeared eager to leverage her Great Barrington Select Board seat in order to court votes in Lee by droning on and on about minutes from meetings that occurred at least five years ago. I guess that is more important to her than focusing on what is hurting her constituents in Great Barrington today. I guess that’s what she considers leadership.
Yet where was her leadership when it came to making sure our roads and bridges were maintained in the first place? Where was the town’s leadership when they closed the Division Street Bridge? The Brown Bridge? The Cottage Street Bridge? Now Brookside Road? Where was the leadership when the bridge next to the old Brick House Pub literally fell into the river? And speaking of Housatonic, where have Ms. Davis and her colleagues been while residents in that village can’t access clean drinking water? What is the plan for funding a new Monument Mountain High School (now well into nine figures due to failed leadership)? And don’t get me started on the libraries and roads.
Ms. Davis, without any audible dissent from her colleagues, wants to tell us that “transparency and accountability are essential for maintaining the public’s trust in our local government.” Those words sound very noble when spoken. But you know what really makes people lose confidence in their local government? Answer: When it’s not safe to drive on bridges or drink the water. That is both the current and chronic situation in Great Barrington under her “leadership” and that of her colleagues.
While Ms. Davis goes looking for votes in the town of Lee, perhaps it would be best if the voters in Great Barrington went looking for leadership somewhere else.
Paul Gardner
Sheffield
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