From the Desk of the First Selectman
Don Lowe First Selectman Column 11/04/2024
Our Annual Town Meeting was held on Saturday, October 26 in Charter Hall. In that meeting, as we always do, we presented The Annual Report which is the product of our annual audit. Our treasurer, Andrea Maloney, presented most of the financial news and Sherman continues to remain in fine financial health. The high points include our general fund balance (surplus; “rainy day” fund) which sits at $5.6 million and our capital non-recurring fund is at $1.8 million. These are important numbers as we examine a list of upcoming capital projects including a possible new Senior Center, the possible boat dock expansion in the Town Park, and, of course, our recently approved Sherman School renovation project.
The pickleball courts up at Volunteer Field are now completed and ready for action. Let the games begin. This particular project was one of the most efficient and trouble-free capital projects that I have seen in Sherman. Our Board of Selectmen was asked around a year ago by numerous Sherman pickleball players if Sherman could provide more courts to satisfy the demand for playing space. We reacted and acted about as fast as a municipality can and the result are these new courts which were mostly paid for by the State in a STEAP (Small Town Economic Assistance Program) grant ($240,000) that my office procured. A big thank you to our Park and Rec Commission for its help and encouragement and also for all that Public Works did to make this happen on time and within budget. A ribbon cutting ceremony is being planned.
Early voting was very popular here in Sherman and one could call it a big success. Of course, we haven’t paid for it yet, and that bill for all of the hours by the many poll workers and registrars will be a big one. But that’s the way of things now and it certainly is nice to have some flexibility for when a person can vote. For us, 1162 people voted early. On top of that, there are nearly 200 absentee voters. Tomorrow is Tuesday, the official voting day, and we’ll just have to see how busy it is.
I worry sometimes that presenting honest, reasonable points-of-view is growing more and more impossible, or “out-of-style” when it pertains to the important issues that affect us all. It seems as I watch the news that a necessary trust in peoples’ attention spans along with a trust in their sense of ethics is frequently lacking. Instead, only the most desperate and “end-of-the-world” statements see the light of day. Especially in national politics. Things are positioned only “this way” or “that way”, in black and white, when in fact, almost all important issues exist in some sort of gray area. I’m purposefully not offering any specific examples – you can think of your own – but my comments stem from watching the events of this boorish presidential campaign and its trickle-down effect into state and local politics that eventually pours into a flood of social media nastiness. I’m writing on Monday, and tomorrow, the election season is over. Possibly, when you read this, we will have chosen our next president. No matter what is decided, I fervently hope for the sake of solving our great country’s problems that our pundits someday return to a more reasonable and thoughtful way of discourse.
