Yup. Really.

Paraphrased somewhat for brevity, the council's logic is, "It costs money and people nowadays don't read anyway. Also, something something the Internet."

The council chairman at the time was a man who has been known for openly mocking people who use their words—we had a lot of trouble with him at the newspaper back in the day—and I'm sure it didn't bother him in the slightest to hang the Financial Hardship sign on closing the library. If he could get away with it, he'd probably do the same to the school district. As it is, the council routinely forces two or three local votes a year on whether it should honor the budget the School Board presents each spring. (N.B. This is not something that, under the town charter, should even be open for discussion; the School Board sets the school budget and the Town Council comes up with a way to fund it, period. But that doesn't stop them from demanding vote after vote until it comes out the way they wanted, which is always forcing the school district to take less money than it asked for.)

This man, by the by, is no longer the chairman of the Town Council, nor even a member of the Town Council...

... because that body hired him to be town manager. I presume he did at least have the sense to recuse himself from the vote about whether to give him the job.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.