'Learn a Bit of Patience and Politeness'

Dear Editor,

In last week's Herald, Rule loving made some suggestions about the order of articles at Town Meeting. Actually, the articles pretty much follow Rule's suggested format, with financial articles first, non-monetary articles second and citizen's petitions last (I will grant that articles for acceptance of new roads seem to be in last place most of the time). 

Regarding any "I told you so" about the decision to pay for the new fire station on the tax levy, instead of excluding the debt, that was a sensible move, until the GD School District dropped the ball on their finances and a finance-bomb on the towns. If anyone in the school district business office was aware of the problem a year ago, I think that they had better get out of town ahead of angry citizens bearing tar and feathers....

The reason for having the special election April 1 to place the fire station bond under debt exclusion is because the Selectmen and Finance Committee will have to juggle the numbers depending on what the result of that election is. Let's give them time to do it right - something that they, at least, seem to be pretty good at. Having the debt exclusion vote as the first article on the Town Meeting Warrant means that they have to be prepared for the vote to fail, and then juggle the numbers on Town Meeting floor, not something conducive to careful planning.

On a totally different issue, I have always considered myself to be a cautious but decisive driver; I often drive 40-45 MPH (don't tell the police) on Rte. 119 outside the center of town.  But in the populous areas, I slow down to 25-30 MPH, which is not only the speed limit, but common sense, what with pedestrians crossing and entering and turning traffic.  There seem to be - particularly at evening rush hour - a number of drivers whose spouses apparently beat them if they are not home exactly on time. My suggestions to them are: 1) slow down; 2) if your spouse beats you, it's domestic violence - call the police and 3) pay attention, learn a bit of patience and politeness. I don't know about you, but I object to people calling me an anal orifice just because I am turning into the bank or the gas station and slowing down a bit in order to do so (with my turn signals flashing for a couple of hundred feet before the turn).

Sincerely yours,

 Brooks Lyman

Townsend Road