Watching the meetings of the Priority Task Force took some effort, but I watched anyway, because I am very concerned about the direction in which Windham grows. I don’t recall seeing any of the new town councilors in attendance, offering their wisdom and making things run smoothly. Like many other longtime residents, I was quite surprised that the committee was dismissed. Some councilors implied the group had gotten off track and lost focus.

No plan was in place to carry on the work of the Task Force. Perhaps the council will resurrect the Ordinance Review Committee. I wish them luck finding volunteers.

Writing or revising ordinances is a lengthy process requiring input from several areas of town government and even more important, several public hearings. Given the length and detail and wide range of questions from the public hearings of late, it’s doubtful that some of us will be around to read the new ordinances.

The new town council seems to take inordinate interest in double checking and even triple checking research and work done by the department heads and one can only imagine how long it would take to review every sentence, nuance and paragraph in revised or new ordinances.

An example of the scrutiny we can expect came last week, when the council had to vote on whether or not to purchase liquid calcium from a particular vendor, said product to be used to keep roads clear in the winter. The town council in its newly initiated minutiae oversight mode, asked for public comment on the decision of whether or not to award the bid.

Complaints from a couple of people about road salt making their cars rust, was enough to cause some Windham Town Councilors to “rethink” a decision whether to use the solution on Windham roads in the winter. (The addition of this material is what makes the salt work so well.) Rust or bare roads? It’s a tradeoff for all who drive in Maine winters. For the majority of people, a safe, passable road wins out. Just think of those busloads of kids if you need a persuader.

We’ve been using this material for years on the roads in Maine. Why hasn’t the public come forth before this? People used to complain about the slippery roads, but in recent years the public has praised the public works department for how good the roads are in the winter. Where were these members of the public last year or year before, when this annual agenda item came before the council? Or did their cars just rust out last year.

What if Windham decides not to use the product on the roads when surrounding towns and cities continue to do so. How much rust would this action prevent, in actual fact?

The point is, this agenda item was not about whether or not to use the material, but whether or not to award a bid to a particular vendor. Nevertheless, the complaints of two people, was enough to send this decision back to the drawing board. Talk about getting off the track – especially asking the department head (and town manager) if any studies had been done comparing various materials and the effect of each on iron. Was that even the question? Was the council supposed to do a scientific study or vote on a price and a vendor?

Now we can waste a little more time, as winter nears, having a town employee look up statistics to appease a couple of people who would probably be the first to cry “danger” if the roads weren’t cleared. No decision was made. We can all cross our fingers and hope we don’t get an early ice storm.

After listening to all of this discussion and the disposition of the agenda item, I began to really understand what getting “off the track” and “losing focus” meant.

See you next week.