John Sellers: Bristol needs to stop giving away services for free

To The Daily Sun,

During the COVID-19 pandemic we need to find ways to save taxpayer money, help our neighbors, and local businesses. Bristol needs to be concerned about the people of Bristol first and foremost and stop giving away our services for FREE or at an extremely reduced rate to other towns.

For example, I read an opinion on April 16 in The Laconia Daily Sun that stated how ALL the towns in the Newfound School District can get a Bristol Library card for FREE. Why is it all those other towns use our library for free when you and I pay $200,000 year to operate the library?

When will the people petition the Selectboard to correct these injustices? When will we stop giving our tax money to other towns? When will we wake up, smarten up and stand up and stop being taken advantage of? We are in a pandemic right now which we may feel the effects for the next year or more. We got to find ways to use tax money wisely and let the other towns pay for services we offer.

Here is a list of services Bristol gives for FREE or at extremely reduced rates.

— TTCC, Bristol pays over $100K, other towns not even close.

— 24/7/365 EMT services to Alexandria, Danbury and Hill. We pay about $250K while they pay $125K combined.

— Library, Bristol pays $200K a year while the other towns pay ZERO.

— We pay the full boat of the police while other towns get to use them for free because they only have one or two officers to cover 168 weekly hours. Then, if the state police cannot come to the call, they request we send our officers for FREE ,which puts our officers in danger.

See, we are even picking up where the state cannot, all for FREE. I am sure I could add the dump, highway department and other services we probably give away for FREE as well.

I hope you still have a job and can pay for all these services and salaries because it was stated that the town will borrow money with interest to pay for them if the taxes do not come in like they once did because of this pandemic.

John Sellers

Bristol