26 December—Litchfield’s Board of Selectmen has come up with a tentative list of how to spend the fed’s $1.8 million American Rescue Plan handout. Including $50,000 for broadband hubs? Good start, but why not the whole $1.8 million so that more people could dump Altice Cablevision?

Sixty thousand for recreational trail development? Isn’t an attraction of recreational trails that they’re kind of natural and undeveloped? Waste of money.

Fifty thousand for improvements at the town beach? Do people not use the town beach because it needs improvement or because they have to pay now? Waste of money. Let beach fees pay for improvements.

One-hundred-fifty-thousand for local nonprofits and businesses that have lost revenue in the novel coronavirus panic? That’s very charitable but not the responsibility of the town. And don’t forget that virtually all of the nonprofits and businesses around here (and everywhere else) made out like bandits through the Paycheck Protection Program. Some did it honestly, others just haven’t been caught by the fed and probably never will be.

One-hundred-twenty-thousand for a community development coordinator for four years?

Part-time, of course. What’s a community development coordinator? Well you may ask. Here’s a job description: “A community development coordinator facilitates, promotes and negotiates community planning and development projects. He plans and monitors empowerment programs necessary to secure and examine community development opportunities. The community development coordinator works at the community level and has to ensure that community development personnel reach out to the public as required.” Sounds like defining a term with itself.

So just what is community development other than something Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be pushing to steal money from working people?

And another job description: “A community coordinator is responsible for tracking issues within a community, assisting with the development of programs and the coordination of events. Other duties include preparing reports on community issues, responding to requests from community residents, and supporting the community manager.”

That’s being done very well right now by Denise Raap, her staff, and the Board of Selectmen. If nothing else in the bureaucratese tells you a community coordinator is nothing but another layer of unnecessary government bullshit, consider empowerment programs. For Litchfield? Get real. Litchfield and its community manager need a community development coordinator like a hole in the head.

Thirty thousand for mental health resources? That usually means suicide prevention. If somebody wants to off himself, for whatever reason, it’s his prerogative. And private and government insurance cover psychiatric care anyway, for all it’s worth. Like drug prevention, waste of money.

Seventy-five-thousand for sidewalks on North Street and South Street? Given the borough’s dreadful fiscal condition, that’s mighty White of the town. And the borough can use some of its own ARP handout, too. But what about the very dangerous East Street sidewalks, among others? Doesn’t anybody care about areas other than the axis?

And $40,000 for a ventilation upgrade to the post office section of the Bantam School, a decrepit building that common sense tells us should be demolished? Instead, the rogue Town Facilities Review Committee, after wasting 18 months and suffering the resignation of perhaps its one sensible member, is recommending that the architectural catastrophe—called an architectural gem by Sam Olmstead, who should know better—be recycled and improved for continued municipal use.

That must not be allowed to happen . . .