“I feel like a man standing at the mouth of an mine-shaft that is full of cave-ins waiting to happen, standing there and saying goodbye to the daylight.” Stephen King, “It”

We had better start planting money trees like they have done in our nation’s capital ever since our elected officials there figured out that they could spend more money than they had. I wish I could find some money tree seeds so that I could plant some, too, because I have this sneaky feeling some elected and appointed officials want more money out of me than I have. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this column I fully expect that no matter which presidential candidate wins this year the government will want a whole lot more money from all of us. Then again it might not matter because if the minimum wage increases by more than 50 percent in Maine all of us on a fixed income will be hurting anyways.

In Windham, the ugly subject of building a new Public Works facility was once again discussed at a Windham council workshop. The Windham town manager seems to be obsessed with squeezing more money from us in order to build this new facility. Unfortunately for us as time goes by, this project gets more and more expensive and that’s the reason someone keeps giving for the project. But what I find really bothersome is the fact that we, the Windham voters, turned down this project and that turns us into the bad guys. Then, being used against us also, is the excuse that the vote was close and not many people actually voted. I fully expect that the same old proposal, expensive as it is, will either appear on next June’s ballot or at the Windham Town Meeting following the election in June.

The next subject is how many parks does Windham really need? Even more important, who should pay for them, especially if most don’t use them at all? The Windham Parks and Recreation Committee recently appeared at a Windham Town Council workshop with proposals to expand the facilities where the skate park is at present. Some of the proposals included basketball courts and a running track. I feel the facilities for those needs exist at the school campus, located not far away from the skate park. The town is presently working on Donnabeth Lippman Park located in the North Windham area. Why not concentrate our town finances there to start with? I remember when Mr. Lippman stated he would pay for moving the skate park to North Windham. Did our elected officials forget?

Once more I propose that the Windham Town Charter be amended even though our elected or appointed officials will be against it (as always). The loss of power scares them, and that is part of my proposal. First, every elected official must be able to be recalled and you know how that makes them feel. Second, due to Windham’s ever-increasing size, it is high time to have an elected mayor and maybe a town administrator under that position. Even the mayor would be subject to recall. Then it’s high time to do away with the antiquated town meeting in Windham and have both the school and municipal budgets decided on Election Day.

Perhaps the best way to save taxpayers money is to take a couple of steps forward and begin figuring out how to combine government services among municipalities instead of this constant drone of local control. I really could care less where or who takes care of services but rather how timely and efficiently they are completed. I know that in Maine that is something totally taboo to even mention,  but other states and even countries have accomplished such things over time. I mean, do we really need county government in Maine when so much is already controlled by local municipal governments? Since local governments duplicate services all over the state, do we have too many municipalities to begin with? I would bet everything that 99 percent of elected officials will totally disagree with me on this subject.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham almost approved this message.