The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/opinion/editorial/page/9/)
As a former 12-year member and Chair of the Suffield Board of Education during difficult economic times, I faced more than my fair share of difficult budget fights. Class sizes soared, building maintenance and desperately needed capital projects were put off, (to the town’s ultimate detriment I might add), administration was reduced, and extracurricular activities at the high school especially were eliminated.
When someone places a sign on the Town Green or along a roadside, I assume that they want the public to know something. Usually the main message is in large, readable letters.
As a volunteer and occasional coeditor at the Observer, I take exception to certain comments in First Selectman Melissa Mack’s column about the paper. In a discussion with Suffield Middle School students about her job, she chose to take a cheap shot at the Observer due to her distress over an article written about the Suffield Police Department.
There are issues today in America that are happening and it scares me. It scares me because they are happening without our knowledge or consent.
Connecticut has one of the nation’s highest rates of vaccination for the measles virus. Many of our State’s legislators, including Governor Lamont, have expressed serious concern with our State’s compliance rate.
In last month’s issue, the Observer reached out to the community looking for people to write. For some time, finding people to get involved and commit time and effort has been an ongoing concern for this organization – as it has for many others in town.
Volunteering should be simple, shouldn’t it? Building off my Co-Editor’s May Observer editorial draft, with a shared desire to improve our community, I am dedicating this editorial to providing information and perspective about how and why to volunteer.
My family and I moved to Suffield in late 1984. By the time we arrived in town, residents had attended many town meetings and participated in many discussions regarding installing sewer lines on the East side of town.
One Saturday evening this past March, I sang with the other 80 members of the Springfield Symphony Chorus (SSC) in Springfield’s beautiful Symphony Hall. It was a concert filled with well-known music from 16 Broadway classics including Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Chorus Line, and Phantom of the Opera.
I have a Google alert set up for my last name. I seldom see alerts, either because there are not a lot of Colstons around, or because they are not doing anything newsworthy.