Ed Sipples

In the future, this will probably become a necessary change, but right now I think there is a better match of meeting our town needs that I must address first. It is a compromise plan that allows us to "WALK BEFORE WE RUN." Even though the other two Selectmen have already rejected this plan, if re-elected, I will bring it to the table again. Here is the plan:

Create a new position of ASSISTANT PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR. Make him responsible for developing our long range infrastructure plan. Also, have the Highway Foreman report to him and solve another Town problem. Fill the position with a qualified person who already works part time for the Town. We have Dick Leighton, who is currently our part time Building Inspector and part time Sanitation Inspector. Add this third part time position of Asst. Public Works Dir. to his duties and make him a full time town employee. We are already paying him for two thirds of his job, so our incremental expense is only one third! I have discussed this plan with Mr. Leighton and acting Town Foreman Mr. Adametz. They both believe this is do-able and wholeheartedly support it. It solves the problem and it won’t cost the Town a lot of money.

I believe this is an excellent question because it touches upon a key problem that faces our growing town. Currently, there is no comprehensive, long range plan to deal with our AGING INFRASTRUCTURE. We need an inventory of our bridges and culverts, a prioritization and then an appropriation of monies for a plan to tackle the necessary repairs.

We currently do have a plan that prioritizes road resurfacing projects, but we need to stop playing games with these monies. In particular, the other two Selectmen decided to withhold all the road resurfacing monies in the '06-'07 budget. In my short absence of just one week, they reduced the road resurfacing line item from $202,000 to $0! Fortunately, the Board of Finance restored $95,000 and this at least allowed our very worst roads to be resurfaced.

Currently, the 1st Selectman position is viewed as being the place where this infrastructure plan should come from. The problem is that as new 1st Selectmen are elected every two years, priorities change and long range plans seem to be altered in favor of short term projects.

Right now, the Town needs a stable, knowledgeable person, immune to election results, who is capable of overseeing our town’s long term infrastructure needs. But I don’t think this means a Town Manager. KW is in an awkward stage of growth. We are becoming too big to do things the old way, but not big enough to expend the huge monies to create dedicated new positions (with benefits). A parallel example is our Town’s growing requirement for more law enforcement. There’s certainly been a lot of attention lately about speeding, but the expense to create our own Police Dept. is staggering. I believe that a full time Town Manager fits into this same category....the Town is not ready to spend this kind of big money!