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As Essential as a Library

In Clinton we yearn for leadership, very different from management. Our town manager Karl Killduff, is doing the managing. Where is the leadership?

As the only community on the shoreline without a senior center, it seems ridiculous this matter needs to be studied again. Last year, the town was surveyed and a task force convened. A group of active seniors naturally arose, calling for town leaders to repurpose some public space for a modest senior center. Delay and indecisiveness robbed us of this simple action, a feel-good move no one opposed.

As a senior in Clinton, I am insulted by the call for yet another task force, another study and recommendations. Voters find the Town Council’s idea ridiculous. Can it not lead without us pushing?

For all the obvious reasons neighboring towns long ago figured out, a senior center is as essential as a library or the schools. The Town Council should not insult us. It should put a Department of Public Works team in charge of transforming the ground floor of the annex on Main Street and move the three counselors in there now to a school or the empty Indian River Rec Center. Done.

Wouldn’t it be great, when the quarantine is lifted, to meet at the welcoming coffee hour at the new Senior Center? The town should just do it.

Bethany Greeley

Clinton