To the Editor:

Westerlo voters have been sent flyers about Tuesday’s referendum on the town hall renovation project.

Please note there are several problems with that flyer:

— Even though Tuesday’s referendum is about permitting the town to borrow money, the only purpose for that money is for the one plan to fix all the problems with the town hall;

— The town board did not seriously consider any alternative to that plan, which will cost about what a brand new building would;

— There’s no urgent need to do a full renovation of the town hall;

— The town has a bad history of making good on project cost promises; remember what they estimated the water district would cost users and compare that with the much higher actual cost. If they begin this project and find it will cost a lot more, they’ll come back to us for more money;

— This plan doesn’t cover anything at the highway garage other than moving the town court and State Police substation. The estimate for a new highway garage is over a million dollars;

— Printing and mailing of this flyer was paid for with your taxes.

You already rejected this big, poor plan once. Please do it again on Tuesday.

Bonnie Kohl

Westerlo

Editor’s note: See related Westerlo budget story in this week’s edition. The flyer is posted on the town’s website.

Building Committee Chairman William Bichteman said earlier that Delaware Engineering estimated the cost of a new town hall and concluded it would be much more expensive than updating the current one (story at AltamontEnterprise.com).