Erik Nelson (11-9) 320

To The Daily Sun,

Many months ago a Bristol space needs committee was formed to review and assess the town’s current and future needs for a new town hall and police station. An architectural firm was selected to work with that committee to design a building that would best accommodate those defined needs. Based upon those needs, in September a public meeting was held to showcase the architect’s design and listen to town’s citizens' reaction and input.

While the building’s appearance and layout was attractive, the price tag for this project was a whopping $3 million. As you can imagine, many of the town’s residents were quite upset with this extravagant, unwarranted proposal and demanded a downward revision of the scope of those plans.

A follow-up meeting to review and discuss the latest revised project design will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. at the old Town Hall. I urge all citizens with common sense to attend this meeting as those who love to spend money like drunken sailors will attend in full force and try to jam this thing down the town’s throat just like they did with the Minot-Sleeper Library renovation project.

As many shall recall, the original proposal to renovate the Library was about $2 million. The second proposal was reduced to about $1.3 million dollars, and we eventually ended up spending $880,000, which was much more practical.

Due to the scope of this current proposed project, and associated expense to the town, the purpose of the meeting next week is to gauge the community’s reaction to this first project revision, and address the majority’s expressed concerns. If the more conservative citizens of this town are silent and choose not to attend, their continued muted concerns will be answered with resulting higher taxes to pay for out-of-control spending by the town’s liberals. I encourage all citizens to attend the meeting and express your opinion freely — regardless of where you stand on these issues.

Erik R. Nelson

Bristol