To the Editor:

Is art imitating life here in Guilderland? Town Supervisor Peter Barber announced at the July 16 town board meeting a request to extend his term of office from two to four years [“Guilderland proposes extending terms for supervisor and clerk,” The Altamont Enterprise, July 19, 2024].

His reason was not due to campaigning, which was tossed out as a reason by another board member, but rather: “I think the reason is people want to do long-term planning, and a lot of times you can’t do something in two years … You can’t do something without worrying about how people will perceive it.”

Is Peter Barber planning to raise our town taxes and wants a four-year term so we will forget? What's up?

He suggested extending his term and the term of the town clerk who is also the receiver of taxes. My first guess was a reassessment for town residents to make up for the tax fiasco of Pyramid and others has to be made up somehow and a four-year term versus his two-year term might force other residents to move out or forget.

Long political terms have a way of protecting incumbents. Watching the town board appear to support the proposal was like living out Dr. Seuss’s story, “King Looie Katz”:

“Till all the cats in Katzen-stein. We’re hiking round and round, all keeping one another’s tails from dragging on the ground. All proud … except for one small cat ... The last cat in line ... The  last, last cat of all the cats that lived in Katzen-stein. A most unhappy little cat named Zooie Katzen-bein. His tail would never be held up. And poor old Zooie knew it. Because holding up a cat's tail takes another cat to do it.”

Who in Guilderland is our brave Zooie Katzen-bein? Who will go to the ballot box “to do a far, far braver thing” — “I cannot, will not lug this stupid thing around! …. He slammed the tail of Prooie Katz! …. He slammed it on the ground …. All the tails in Katzen-stein were slammed including proud King Looie’s.”

Who’s brave enough in Guilderland to drop King Looie Katz’s tail this November?

Christine Duffy

Guilderland