To the editor:

Anyone who has served on the Barrington Town Council should know how vulnerable the municipal budget is compared to the school budget. The school budget is a whopping 2/3’s of the total town budget, and as a bottom line budget, can be bloated and not easily reduced by individual citizens if $50,000 is the maximum allowable reduction.

Yet voters fail to realize that their quality of life does not depend on the schools (while certainly their reputation for excellence is important), but rather it is based on quality town services.

It is disheartening to read the comments/letters/editorials of those who reprimand the town council for shifting the cuts to various departments - foolishly voted at the FTR (financial town referendum) - in an effort to maintain our quality town services…foolish because the cuts did nothing to lower our taxes. In addition, they have the legal right to do so, by charter.

There may be residents who do not know that both the Zoning and Planning Boards are semi-judicial boards, bound by state and local laws, which include sending notices out to those affected by an application, as well as filling out and filing massive amounts of required documentation in order to not be sued by an applicant. Both boards are required by law to follow a process, one that cannot be influenced by opinions of elected officials, lest it be perceived as unfair and unlawful bias or interference.

The way I see it, folks harassed the Barrington Planning Board and Town Council during the process of the Shine-Harmony application for the flawed development plan at Zion. Then, frustrated by the process, the voters took it out on the municipal budget, because they could, before giving the Planning Board the opportunity to see the process through. Now it would appear that Shine-Harmony is seeking revenge for the Planning Board’s negative reaction to the initial plan, by proposing to demolish Belton Court, the second most architecturally significant building in Barrington. Town Hall is number one.

Guess who loses at the end of the day, when uninformed residents think they know better about the cost of maintaining our quality town services, than those who we elected to serve us?

We do.

Kate Weymouth

Barrington