The acrimonious tone from Commissioiner Clark is palpable

Published Date

To the editor,
I'm reading another article about unnecessary legal costs incurred by the Tilton-Northfield Fire Commission because Pat Clark seems to have a personal vendetta with the chief and can't move on. I agree with Commissioner Gallant and thank him for having the courage to stand apart from Commissioner Clark by speaking against Clark's wasteful spending of our tax dollars on lawyers to perpetuate his vendetta. For five years the commission's budget for legal fees has been $5,000 but now Pat Clark has increased it by more than triple that amount to $16,000.
That's retaliation, not oversight.
It's time for taxpayers in Tilton and Northfield to say "Enough is enough." Pat Clark is still so annoyed about the residency debate — despite the fact that the chief acquiesced and moved to downtown Tilton. So why is Commissioner Clark still harboring a grudge? The chief had explained his difficulty unloading his house given this real estate market. Which one of us cannot relate to owing a lot more for their house than it is currently worth? Give me a break, this man has a family to consider as well. Remember, too, that the terms of his so-called residency requirement were ambiguous from the outset in that the chief was made to agree to move "into the district" which the commissioners where suppose to define "at a later time." But they didn't. Regardless, the issue is resolved so why can't Commissioner Clark move forward? Instead, now we have far too many nonpublic (secret) meetings and legal costs at the behest of Commissioner Clark to perpetuate his personal feud. This is unfair to taxpayers. We want transparency and efficiency. We are not getting that.
Our firefighters put their lives on the line — let's treat them with dignity and respect at these meetings. The acrimonious tone and rancor from Commissioner Clark is palpable. This hostility will destabilize our entire fire department; it is already making it a very hostile and unhappy place to be for our brave Firefighters. We can't afford to turn the oversight of the fire department into a donnybrook. We need a fresh perspective and a thoughtful approach. Enough of the uproar and in-fighting — let's vote to run this commission like a business, not a grudge match. Support Jane Alden for Fire Commission.
Tom Cavanaugh
Tilton