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Change the Landscape

As a member of the Clinton Green Party, let me lend my support to the proposed Clinton 2022-’23 Town Budget.

Having sat in on a number of workshops and budget presentations in the past, I do know that the process is arduous, complex, and quite frankly, rather bland. Yet, despite the endless numbers, percentages, addendums, cuts, amendments, unpredictable Education Cost Sharing monies, quibbling, and so forth, the Town Council and our town manager have responsibly included the position of a full-time, professional town planner for our Land Use Office. Well done!

For those who have followed Clinton budgets over the last few years, they surely know that this proposal has been discussed and considered quite often and in many circles, and while the budget debate continues to devolve into partisan contentions about our unassigned fund balance, the good in this budget is worth supporting for what it will surely bring to our community. A good planner will help condense an already convoluted application process, write grants for capital improvements, update our GIS system, rewrite and tighten some of the antiquated regulations, and most important focus on long-term planning. Just think what we might look like with the implementation of our well-researched and heavily documented Plan of Conservation and Development, a document that continues to exist without much attention at all.

With the right hire, a full-time, professional town planner could conceivably change the landscape of Clinton for years to come. We owe that to those who will follow.

Eric Bergman

Clinton