Submitted by Steven Hall, Greenwich
We are in troubled dangerous times locally and nationally. I have been a resident, property and business owner living and working in Greenwich for over 25 years.
As background for my comments to follow I have over 16 years of education with a degree in architecture from Princeton and another 2 years in training to be a Navy pilot to fulfill my NROTC obligation. I did a tour in Vietnam and another in command of a training unit in South Korea to establish a squadron flying Navy planes against coastal attacks from North Korea. I was personally medaled by the highest Naval authority for both tours.
I subsequently had a long career in the project management of design and construction and energy systems starting with Bechtel in working to create a design management system of a nuclear power plant in Massachusetts. One other notable assignment was the successful workout of 22 defaulted municipal construction projects across the country of one contractor worth $500 million in 1980. On a much smaller local scale I pioneered the use of a Ground Source Heat Pump system for a residential project in Litchfield in 1995
In Greenwich I was asked in 2017 for my expertise to serve on a committee to create a Strategic Energy Conservation Plan for the town that was published in 2019 but ignored for several more years and still has BET anti-science resistance. In fact the BET Chairman with no discernable expertise took it upon himself to publicly squash a report by a GHS student urging a town declaration of action on climate change and did so with support of the First Selectman.
Needless to say I believe in science and in fact based development and management of design and construction projects and their subsequent maintenance and management. Our past and present BET of one party has done neither of these and in fact is now is squabbling internally having arbitrarily with no rationale cut and damaged the crown jewel of our school system. Their fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement has easily cost the town many 10s of millions in the past decade (just in energy alone $2.5 million a year and then add in 20% per year in delaying projects)
One last recommendation. I have never belonged to any political party and never will, but am frightened for our country by the elected one we have in Washington and what it has done and is doing daily against the Constitution I swore an oath to protect. Our own elected officials took the same oath as well, and their silence is their own indictment of their violation of their oath. The local mantra and illusion of the separation local from national politics is totally now a myth with dark shirted masked ICE agents brutally disappearing people daily from our streets in CT with no due process. And we now have the economic damage of loss of jobs coupled with environmental damage plus higher energy costs from canceled wind projects as well as higher product costs from tariffs.
Then there is the issue of law and order. My two elected district 9 representatives refused to answer me when I asked them if they had concerns about three convicted January 6 felons pardoned and released back to the state. With no response I can only assume they approved of their pardoning for the violence we all saw with our own eyes.
The silence from them and their local party is nothing less than blanket approval of all actions at the national level by their party that must be countered. That can and should be done with a total rejection of all candidates of their party at every level across the country and if for no other reasons enumerated above and we must do so here in Greenwich.
As has been written, our elections are no longer Democrats versus Republicans. The choice now is between the tyranny of dictatorship or democracy
Steven Hall