Honesty & transparency count; I'm voting no on Nov. 1

To The Daily Sun,

On Thursday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Bristol Town Hall a "Special Town Meeting" will be held to see if the taxpayers of Bristol will vote to purchase property for a new town office. Two thirds of the people voting must vote in the affirmative to approve the purchase. Please take the time to attend and vote on this important issue, polls must stay open for one hour.

At the regular Bristol Town Meeting, held last March. voters voted to reject the report of the "Space Needs" Committee. At that same meeting the voters voted down funds for architectural and engineering studies for a new town office. In spite of this, the town Selectboard has decided that they should continue spending on this project. At a recent Town Budget Committee meeting a town official had the temerity to state that architectural and engineering work was being performed "pro bono." This is not true as the funds to pay for this work will be included in the warrant article being voted on.

I will be voting "no" on the warrant article, not that this project has merit or not, but for the way in which our Selectboard is shoving this down our throats. Honesty and transparency do count. We don't need a new town office, we need a police station and this is not the answer. Please join me in voting down this ill-conceived boondoggle.

Paul Simard

Bristol