To the Editor:

I am writing this letter to inform all the residents and taxpayers of Westerlo of my personal experience pertaining to the budget workshop of Oct. 20.  In my opinion, aside from the pledge to the flag, it was a mockery pertaining to democracy.

The agenda consisted of: a Comprehensive Budget Review, Highway Garage Repairs, and Shale Gas Development Report Summary.

At the onset of the meeting, the town supervisor made an announcement that, at this meeting, the gallery of concerned citizens should refrain from contributing any information. Basically, I took it as our lips were to be sealed.

I always thought that workshops were about the give and take of presenting ideas, so my complaint number one is what I refer to as a gag order.

Complaint number two: People, please get a copy of the budget report and view for yourself the size of the print. I was disheartened because I observed one person using a magnifying glass, and I read and pointed out information to a few others.

I did have my memory jogged because it reminded me of one of my brothers who could never spell very well. He would purposely write extremely small so that teachers were not able to distinguish his letters. It was a childish tactic to be scorned.

Complaint number three: Talking low, mumbling, and enunciating poorly is, in my opinion, an attack on the hearing capabilities of those in the gallery. One microphone and one speaker were available, but were not utilized to achieve what was necessary for the public to fully comprehend this meeting.

A suggestion would be to use more microphones or a video recording system to help streamline communications.

I believe the current town board, for the night, adopted the policy of “Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil.”

I almost felt like all my senses were being placed in a comatose state, except for my sense of smell. In that case, everything stunk!

Is this Westerlo's new procedure? Is this what our current representatives are all about? Are we to settle for puppet or dummy mode? Do we as taxpayers want this role? After all, whose town is it anyway — the people’s or the board’s?

We needed a referendum vote to speak against expenditures for the $2.75 million construction project. Now it' s the budget process. Maybe we should have the latter included on the ballot as a choice for the voters in the November election.

I certainly am not a happy camper, are you?

Anita Marrone

Westerlo