Letter: 'In Support Of Toni Boucher'

To the editor:

Toni Boucher: all the right qualities.

First, the right priorities. (1) Education excellence: our kids are worth it. Local voices especially parents strengthen our schools' character. (2) Localized Zoning. Towns know best about their own needs and treasures. The whole reason for zoning was to move control from Hartford to the towns. Later re-centralization decimated affordable small dwellings on large developments, because they "didn't count." (3) Safety from crime. (4) Unburdening taxpayers.

Second, knowing what to do, exactly. Third, knowing how to do it. Toni's mastery of educational governance is unsurpassed. As member and Chair of Wilton's Board of Education, Commissioner on Connecticut's State Board of Education, Co-Chair of the Legislature's Education Committee, and seven-time Children's Champion Award (just examples) she knows every hard question and how to address it. Multiple elections to leadership prove she's esteemed for effectiveness.

Relocated after 27 years in Wilton, with two terms each on Wilton P&Z and Board of Education, I acclaim Toni as a friend, mentor, architect and builder of unity and good works, always possessing an informed vision of the future and readiness to shape it wisely, as a public servant, not a politician.

John Benson
Chesapeake, Ohio