Reprint of Willimantic Chronicle Community Voices

The following is a "Community Voice" printed in the Chronicle on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005. The writer is a member of the Board of Education and a member of the Democratic Town Committee. Any thoughts about this voice?

Community Voices
Give Willington political parties a fair shake
By LAURIE MAZICH SEMPREBON

I am surprised at the Chronicle’s implied endorsement of the A Sentinel Party political party in Willington. I understand editorial endorsement of candidates or issues, but I thought that proper newspaper ethics demanded a neutral presentation of facts in articles on the front page and throughout a newspaper, other than in an editorial. Over the past couple of years, the Chronicle has had several articles heavily skewed in favor of the A Sentinel Party. You are not presenting accurate facts to the voters of Willington. As a resident who reads the minutes of many town commissions and boards, attends meetings, serves on a board in town and votes, I object to your pseudo- endorsement of the A Sentinel Party.
To be fair to the Chronicle , maybe you are getting phone calls or mail from A Sentinel Party members with information that you think is accurate and, because of time constraints or lack of reporters, you are not able to follow through as well as you should to present a balanced account of what is really going on.If that is the case, you are doing the readers a disservice to present only part of the facts.You are also contributing to the demise of our political system by presenting an unbalanced and unfair account of what is going on in the town of Willington. That makes me wonder how balanced the rest of your articles are, either on local events or nationally.Making an attempt to call one person and reporting in the article that he was “ not available for comment” and yet reporting quotations from several A Sentinel Party members ( or “ Primary Republicans” — the same thing) does not appear to be balanced reporting.
To give you just a few examples: 1) Terry Hoffman has been an invaluable, trusted servant of Willington and did not deserve John Patton’s implication that there was some kind of “backroom deal” to raise her salary. Terry has worked above and beyond her job description for years and is finally being placed at a more reasonable level, both in title and in monetary compensation; 2) If you read Bob Lisiewski’s letter to the editor accusing the Democrats of being “ the devil” and the cross- endorsing political parties of being “ the Taliban,” you might think twice about taking anything he says seriously ( it was amazing that he was able to insult almost everyone in town in a single letter).
3) Remember the big stink John Patton raised about First Selectman Michael Eldredge paying town employees overtime when they had taken sick or vacation time? It turned out that the same practice existed the entire time Patton was first selectman? These are just a few examples of how Patton’s A Sentinel Party has tried to create trouble for Eldredge and Willington when they could be spending more time and effort doing positive things for the town.I also wonder if you are reporting what you hear or read from the A Sentinel Party members because it sounds like a great story — the underdog being crushed by the bigger, stronger parties, so to speak. I think it would be a more interesting story to report the reasons behind the Democrats and Republicans cross- endorsing. I cannot imagine the crossendorsing happening on a national or even a state level, so I would think that you would be interested in what is really going on in Willington.
The Democrats and Republicans on the local level really are interested in doing what is best for the town of Willington; there is no ulterior motive for some sinister control of the town. I, myself, always vote for the candidates and not the parties ( including A Sentinel Party members) and the Democrats and Republicans put forth candidates that we felt would serve the town well.
Patton’s party had control for many years and townspeople got tired of one person trying to run everything from one position. And, although I do think that John did some good for the town when he was first selectman, I have lost a lot of respect for him in his relentless political trashing of the Republicans, especially Eldredge and Blessington. I do not agree with all of Mike’s and John’s views, but I try to listen to and respect all views. If Patton were really interested in doing the best for Willington, he would have spent more time over the past two years helping his fellow selectmen in working for the town of Willington and not creating controversy and getting in the way of every good thing that the other two selectmen have tried to do.In your future reporting of events in the town of Willington, try not to listen and report on only the A Sentinel Party side of an issue.

Semprebon is a member of the Willington Democratic Town Committee, a board of education member and a former conservation commission member.
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Town Business Manager

At the end of their meeting on August 15th, the Board of Selectmen voted 2 -1 to create a position called "Business Manager" for the Town and Board of Education. This was done after the public had gone home because the Selectmen went into executive session (a non-public meeting to discuss certain privileged topics.) There was no job description or job requirements presented, no discussion with the Board of Education or Board of Finance, and the Accounting Supervisor was given an $8,000 raise and given that position. She has certainly gone beyond requirements of her position as Accounting Supervisor due to the fact that the First Selectman needed her to perform his duties since he admitted he did not understand municipal finance. Is the Town ready for a business manager or even a Town manager?

Willington Library

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River Road Recreation Complex

This facility is located at the Intersection of Route 32 (River Road) and I-84. It is just North of the commuter parking lot. The facility will eventually contain a regulation football/soccer field, regulation little league baseball field, basketball and volleyball courts. A pavilion will also be built there. Little to no funding or other support has been given for the completion of the fields by the current administration. The Board of Finance did intercede last year and voted to allocate an additional $65,000 to finish the little league field. The vote to give a final approval for the money will be at a Town meeting sometime in late September/early October.

Willington Senior Housing

The Access Agency of Willimantic applied for and received a grant to build an income-limited 32 unit Senior Housing apartment building on Old Farms Road in Willington. The facility is being designed currently and a ground breaking is expected late fall.