Saturday, March 15

REAL INTERESTS???



     My name is Kevin Zurrin and I am running for Selectman in the town of Egremont. In a recent letter to the editor Juliette Haas questioned my real interests in running for selectman. I would like to take this opportunity to share those interests. First and foremost Juliette I am one of your neighbors. I can also be a friend, as I am with many of our neighbors.

     You said that to your knowledge I have never offered anything constructive, either in discussion or deed. I guess it depends on how you define constructive. One of my goals when we moved here was to get people more interested and involved with what goes on in our town. I believe I did that; and that is constructive. I wanted to get people to understand that this Town Hall Meeting form of government works much better when more people are aware and involved. I think the message is getting out; and that is constructive.

     You say we live in an era where judgment and criticism abound. Is it a bad thing that we use judgment and critique issues? My so called angry rhetoric actually focuses our attention on the issues that matter. Your rosy overview is designed to divert our attention away from the fact that you want to raise the tax burden on all of the good hard working people of Egremont; our friends and neighbors.

     Juliette probably doesn't remember a time when friends and neighbors would gather together and have a good old fashioned barn painting party to "restore" a neighbors barn. She wants us to pay an architect to draw up plans. Then, because we are getting a state grant, we have to hire a company and pay the highest "prevailing" wages to "restore" the barn. This means she has to tax her friends and neighbors even more to get that barn "restored". Why don't we just spend a Saturday afternoon and help our friend and neighbor paint their barn?

     Your letter implies that you have done many good things for our town. It seems to me that the majority of your programs just end up increasing our tax burden; and at a time when many cannot afford it. You always point out that we have such a low tax rate but this too is deceptive. The fact is that since you have been involved in our town government our tax bill, which is the amount we actually pay, has gone up every year regardless of the deceptively low tax rate. If your solution for Egremont is to raise more taxes then perhaps you should consider what your interest is in Egremont.

     KevinZurrin

9 comments:

  1. This is the same Juliette Haas that several years ago backed a sewer proposal for South Egremont that was both ill thought out and grossly unfair to the rest of the Town.

    This is the same Juliette Haas that proposes the Town default on its promise to the citizens that the users of the Water Company would pay the bill.

    LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT: JULIETTE HAAS LIVES IN A LAND OF LOONIES. SHE'S COOKOO. SHE'S DONE NOTHING BUT HURT OUR TOWN.

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  2. Though Juliette' s ideas are noble, I have to agree, they are not practice. She went door to door to get a petition signed to charge every resident $1.00/ bag of garbage taken to the dump. In her goal of a zero foot print, she fails to see that not all residents have inexhaustible funds. Many are just getting by. If charged for dumping, she failed to see many locals would start burning again or dumping on the road side. Would that reverse the good?
    She does not have a practical view of life here.

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  3. Whenever the floor recognizes Juliette Haas I see it as an opportunity to text with my friends.

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  5. Juliette Haas has done a great deal for this town, saving money like the solar panel array that supplies power to the town garage. An $150,000 installation at no cost to Egremont, and no electric charges for that facility since then. She is the only one from the outside who has made a money saving correction to the Water Company.
    There is no place in our town for ad hominem attacks on her, or any other public servant.

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    1. That's not totally true. It has cut down the bill but it has only cut about 25% of the electric usage, and we did have to throw into the kitty.

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    2. The bills for electric usage for the town garage since installation of the solar panels show no balance due, in fact a credit balance.

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  6. Sounds like BS to me. You didn't say that the solar is producing more electric than the building uses. My electric bill shows no balance and a credit. But thats because I overpaid the bill. Why don't you get the real numbers from the finance comittee then report back.

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