At the last Selectmen’s meeting, the chairman spent a lot of time explaining to us how people actually go to the Town Offices to pay bills, as if there are people out there who are under the misconception that nobody goes there, and that’s why they won’t support restoration.  Say what?

OK, I’m going to stipulate that people go to the Town Offices, lot’s of people.  Just about everybody understands that we need town offices and that the current facility is a dump.  The argument is over whether we should spend millions to transform the dump into reasonable office space, build some new office space, or rent some space.

The Tocag survey offers some guidance here:

When asked if you were aware of each of five serious issues with Brewster Hall, more than 90% said they were Familiar or Somewhat Familiar.  When asked how important these issues were, 80%-90% said they were Important or Somewhat Important.

When asked what is the most important factor in consideration of town office options, only 14% said it was that the offices should remain in Brewster Hall.  When asked what should be done with Brewster Hall if town offices moved out, 35% said restore it with private funds, 33% want to sell it, and only 12% want to restore it with tax dollars.

So when the chairman implies we should fix the old building because we all go there, it’s because she won’t consider giving us any other choice.  It’s like saying we need to restore an old rusted out Buick because we need to drive to work every day.  We all know that given reasonable choices, this problem could be easily solved.