May 1, 2024  |  Amy Shapiro

To the Editor:

I am writing to the people of Weston who may not understand the significance of what happened at the ATBM last Wednesday. I would like to preface my remarks with a couple of things.

First is that my parents moved to Weston in 1969 when, to put it mildly, Republicans were many and Democrats scarce. In all of the 35 years after, I never heard one peep from them about anything other than civil discourse between all Weston residents. I have lived here myself since 2004 and have had both Republican and Democratic Westonites running the town in a pretty harmonious fashion.

Nothing prepared me for the horror of Wednesday’s ATBM and horror is precisely the right word. Instead of respect for the nonpartisan work of the volunteer members of our BOS, BOE and BOF who worked countless VOLUNTEER hours to craft budgets that lowered the mill rate by a huge amount, spent LESS than last year’s budget and endeavored to make Weston an even better place to live, I heard catcalls, boos, outright lies and total mayhem from the 150 or so people who voted down everything but the Board of Ed budget.

A tiny minority of voters in this town shook me to my very core with their viciousness and desire for our town government to have slashed budgets that will not allow the most basic services to be available to the residents of Weston (think sanding icy roads in winter, making sure the equipment works to perform essential town services, and for those who are thinking of renovating, a timely issue of building permits).

Remember that the people who created these budgets worked to represent the people who elected them. We had a terrific bunch of Westonites elected to office last fall and we should have faith in their desire to do the best for this town we love. We must band together and vote No on everything but the BOE budget to allow the nonpartisan members of the Board of Finance to stand up to this small band of naysayers and say “NOT IN MY TOWN!”

I urge all of my fellow Westonites to vote NO, YES, NO either via absentee ballot at Town Hall or at machine vote on Saturday at Town Hall.

—  Amy Shapiro