To The Editor:
This letter is directed to the Waitsfield voters and the Mad River community.
Construction of a mediocre new building on a productive piece of farmland in the center of Waitsfield's National Historic Register District is a really bad idea...even with $750,000 from the state of Vermont to do it.
How did a project that was decidedly not supported by the Waitsfield voters end up getting state grant funding and thereby buying its way to a bond vote? The answer to that question is not because it has merit or community support. The answer lies in where and with whom the Farm Stand agenda remains and how this agenda has warped and compromised the process and project.
The current select board has been doing an admirable job in its attempts to govern by including and listening to the people. It is unfortunate that their varied and thoughtful alternate approaches on the town office issue have been thwarted. I appreciate their attempts and wish they had less pressure to act hastily and more support to take their time and build a project that has community support.
The process and product can be, and has been, manipulated and compromised in myriad ways. After 17 years in Waitsfield I am still surprised to learn of new ways and twists to gain support for a project that has very little. Shifting $750,000 of cost to the state and federal governments does not make a new building at the Farm Stand site any better or more deserving of your vote. Please join me, once again, in voting a big no on Waitsfield's planned July bond vote. We desire and deserve better than this, both on the process and project side of things. Give our current select board a chance to do what they wanted to do....listen to and lead the people. Voting no is the right thing to do and, in the end, is what needs to happen so that a community-supported town office project can develop.
Let your voice and your vote be heard and thank you for your consideration.
Kirsten Seibert
Waitsfield
P.S. A big shout of thanks to Mark Walker and Dave Moody for their excellent work on the sidewalk project! K.S.
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