Last week I joined 130 or so of my fellow Falmouth citizens, and what appeared to be the entire town staff, at the much-heralded Community Facilities Planning event. The 98 percent of town residents who were tied up making a living or putting kids to bed missed quite a time. The coffee was hot, the cookies home-made and good feelings abounded. Thanks to some nifty technology we soon learned that there was strong support among those who attended for preserving the Plummer Motz campus, as well as expanding the library and creating a spiffy new Town Hall. Pretty much everyone went home smiling.
Unfortunately, the way the event was organized and the questions worded the exercise made me think of parents asking a young daughter if she would like a pony, not mentioning that dad had just lost his job and making next month’s mortgage payment might be a problem. The results were about as predictable and equally meaningful. I encourage the Town Council to stop wasting money on “feel-good” events and get serious about stemming the expensive “mission creep” that has occurred over the last decade, funded thanks to skyrocketing real estate prices. That party is over. The council needs to tighten the town’s belt, spend more time representing the interests of the overwhelming majority of residents too busy to pay attention to events like this and less energy responding to a relative few who are happy to spend others’ tax money on continually expanded facilities and services.