LETTER: Amherst Leadership Needs Change, New Blood

There may have never been a more critical time, for we the tax payers, to force change in our town government.

Our town government is crumbling, figuratively and almost literally. Our board of Selectman is divided and dysfunctional.

This board has spent hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars doing what they wanted instead of following our wishes. Wishes that we made clear, when we cast our votes.

They have virtually ignored major problems until they can't be ignored any longer.

We have a 15 million dollar road bond that represents nothing more than years of unimaginably bad management at the Board of Selectman level. It was the board who chose to do other things with our money than maintain our roads.

The roof on the town hall is about to fall in despite having been identified as a serious problem 10 years ago.

We have been plagued by shady accounting practices and money moving shell games, undertaken by this board for years.

One bridge has already been shut down by the state because this board couldn't figure out how to fix it in a timely manner.

It's obvious that the attitude on this board is to do whatever is necessary to keep the truth from the voters.

It now appears that the only thing our Town Administrator was guilty of was figuring out what was going on and trying to correct it.

What we need now is not to recycle past selectmen into the mix. They let us down before and undoubtedly will again. We don't need voices from the past who clearly come back to us now with very specific and personal agendas. 

We need new blood not old blood. We need new ideas and a new philosophy. We need people who will not hide the truth but will embrace it, and be open and honest with sharing that truth with us, the people who pay the bills.

We have a chance to start this change in March, by getting one new voice on the board. His name is John D'Angelo. We need to take advantage of this opportunity and look for another chance for change a year from now.

John appears to be well educated, professional and new to town. He may be just what we need. I say let's give him a shot and see how it goes.