For those of you that are interested in where all the candidates stand on issues that are impacting Wallingford please see the listings on the Record Journal website.
ALL CANDIDATES - Arts and Culture
ALL CANDIDATES - Public Safety
ALL CANDIDATES - Environment
ALL CANDIDATES - Education
ALL CANDIDATES - Jobs
ALL CANDIDATES - Taxes
My points on them are as follows:
Taxes: As long as there are salary
increases, there will be increases in the cost of running the town, and
therefore tax increases. What CAN be done to hold that line is to execute smart,
economical, spending. Job consolidations upon retirements, where cross training
of duties is done proactive to the retirements, so that retired positions can
be filled by remaining workers or by new ones in a part time capacity, rather
than at a full time equivalent, where expensive benefits and pensions further
impact the bottom line.
Job/Local Economy: Wallingford’s low
utilities are no longer the siren song to businesses as they used to be.
Businesses now have their own co-generation potential and utility subsidy
packages available to them. We need to aggressively market Wallingford as THE
central business location in Connecticut from a highway / transportation as
well as employee pool perspective.
Education: The Wallingford
Superintendent of Schools and the Wallingford Board of Education has an annual
plan as well as a five year strategic roadmap. To better prepare our children
for the global, competitive, employment landscape, we need to creatively fund
and support their efforts.
Environment: Wallingford needs to be
a responsible citizen when it comes to our environment by carefully planning
and supporting efforts to clean up and maintain our waterways and our
undeveloped areas. These need to be carefully weighed under their costs but as
much as can be done with what we have at our disposal should be encouraged and
positively supported.
Public Safety: The safety of all our
citizens is one of our top priorities. This is not an issue of “throw a ton of
money at it” – that has never solved a single issue. We need to be vigilant in
our efforts to have a safe town through police initiatives and community
efforts. The more citizens, homeowners, and businesses that are invested in the
effort, the more successful we will be.
Arts/Culture in the community:
Wallingford can choose to be a bedroom town or a thriving community. The former
is a place where everyone lives and their kids go to school; where the adults,
for the most part, leave to other locations for work and then lay their head at
night. The latter is an involved and integrated community effort between the
town itself, the students, residents, and the businesses that want Wallingford
to reach its potential through shared participation of events and recreation
for everyone to take part in, enjoy, and be proud of.
