Letter to the Editor:
Your vote in the upcoming election on November 5th is of great importance. One problem in the United States is that voters tend to focus on voting during presidential election years and pay less heed to local elections. Elections at the local level are crucial and provide you with a chance to put individuals into office who will determine how your community will function and how your local needs will be met.
Elected candidates will set and enforce local laws that have a great impact on your well- being. In addition, local towns create budgets that affect how much money will be spent in maintaining roads, what programs your parks will offer and to whom and at what cost, funding for fire departments, providing police patrols, supporting agricultural concerns, and environmental issues.
In order to serve the needs of the community, the people must be listened to in a respectful and caring manner. Communication, to be effective, has to be a process of listening, reflecting, and responding but then being willing to hear and respond to feedback. All manner of business conducted at town meetings needs to be provided to all the constituents by many means. Not all residents in Columbia County have internet or even access to the internet.
In this upcoming election I urge you first of all to VOTE, second not to confuse national politics with the local issues that are impacting you first hand, and most importantly to vote for a team who will represent you by listening to your concerns, researching the issues and then acting in the best interest of the town at large and not a select few. The team who will truly represent you in the Town of Chatham are Donal Collins for Supervisor, Abi Mesick for Town Board and Vance Pitkin for Town Board. Your vote counts!
Julia Veronezi
Town of Chatham
