Letter: Downs, Cliff Will 'Preserve Our Town'

Editor's Note: For a full collection of support letters for these candidates, click on their hyperlinked names at the bottom of this letter under "Related Topics."

In recent years, the Wayland Board of Selectmen has enjoyed a majority of members with a forward-looking approach to town policy decisions. This leadership has resulted in a state of the art high school, a new privately financed town pool, and a town center that will help reduce our residential taxes while improving the town’s quality of life. Electing Board of Selectmen candidate Gordon Cliff and School Committee candidate Jeanne Downs will be votes that endorse public policies that have been the town’s mainstay for decades – education, open space, wise investments and favorable Moody’s ratings.

We don’t doubt that Cliff’s and Downs’ opponents mean well. We simply disagree with their efforts to cut the Recreation budget, cut funding for acquisition of conservation land, and change town government by electing the Finance Committee, among other things. It is so tempting to leap for policies that will drastically cut taxes. The problem with this Tea Party philosophy is that it fails to appreciate the importance of investments in our kids, our elderly, our services and our town infrastructure. Gordon Cliff and Jeanne Downs will preserve our community and not work to tear it down.

Tom and Juliette Fay