WILLIAMSVILLE — I don't live in Brattleboro, I don't vote in Brattleboro, I don't pay taxes in Brattleboro - but I spend a lot of time and money there. So I attended the recent Selectboard meeting about reducing the budget that was passed at Representative Town Meeting and then defeated by a subsequent referendum.
In response, the Selectboard has placed every sacred cow on the sacrificial block, including much-needed upgrades to the town's two fire stations and the Municipal Center as well as cuts in personnel and services in every town department: fire, police, public works, town clerk's office, recreation and parks, and Brooks Memorial Library.
After each member of the Selectboard spoke, the heads of each town department explained the consequences of the proposed cuts: a dire reduction in town services across the board.
Then members of the public spoke.
One senior citizen on a fixed income said she kept her thermostat set at 60 degrees in order to afford both heat and property taxes.
A schoolteacher spoke on behalf of the children who stand to lose most from these cuts, especially through summer programming at both the recreation department and the library. And several town employees pointed out that they were already pinched, with 2{1/2} full-time equivalents doing the work of four in 37 hours a week instead of 40.
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Just a few years ago, the library cut its hours of operation from 56 to 50; the proposed cuts would shut the library doors another 10 hours every week.
Many people use the library, and not just for books. The public-access computers and free Wi-Fi are in constant demand, as are all the print and digital materials in the collection. Whatever the library doesn't have in its collection, its professionally trained staff can often obtain by request.
One of the unspoken services the library provides is shelter: a roof with heat, light, social contact. It's a safe place for youth, for the elderly, the unemployed, and the homeless, among others.
The inconvenience to those of us who pay an annual fee to use this excellent library is insignificant to the cost-shifting that will result with further reduced hours.
When the safety net of social services shrinks in one place, it expands in another; without the unacknowledged social services of the library, this vulnerable population of library users are at increased risk for all of society's social ills - as well as increased need for police protection and intervention.
What is saved by cutting here might have the unintended consequences of increased expenses elsewhere.
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I know I hold a minority opinion, but I actually like paying my local property taxes, even though I receive only a fraction of the services Brattleboro taxpayers receive.
Newfane has no police department, no trash collection, no sewer system, no water-treatment plant, no skating rink, no swimming pool. Our fire departments are both all-volunteer, and our small library is open only about 20 hours a week. Some of our Newfane tax dollars go to social services (most headquartered in Brattleboro) that help care for the needy, the ill, and the elderly.
There was a lot of talk at the meeting about making Brattleboro an attractive town where people from away would move and where its current residents would stay.
It already is.
Brattleboro is already a terrific town, where people visit daily - to work, to shop, to access services, and to be entertained. Brattleboro has resources beyond anything available in the surrounding communities.
First and foremost among them is Brooks Memorial Library.
If I weren't a regular user of Brooks Library, I'd hardly drive to Brattleboro at all. I'd buy groceries, hardware, and lunch closer to home. Anything I couldn't find in Newfane or Townshend, I'd buy online.
But I almost always drive the extra miles to Brattleboro, where I'm a proud, card-holding patron of one of the best libraries around.
Listening to all the eloquent arguments for each line item in the budget, it became clear to me that Brattleboro is suffering from habitually deferring what has to be done - and the town seems to be on its well-worn path to do so again.
But eventually, the bill comes due - or the pillars of civic life crumble.