Ruminating about Roosevelt

I have some random and not especially original observations before Monday night’s Second Public Hearing on the City Budget. Theodore Roosevelt had some thoughts that I was reminded of while scanning online comments and reactions from a variety of sources about the Norwich City Budget and the process that has gotten us to this point. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Those we've elected to lead our city together with the City Manager struggle to maintain balance on the tightrope between revenues that seem to rise (if at all) arithmetically and expenses that seem to grow exponentially.

Municipal budgets are traditionally predicated on protecting the lives and property of residents and businesses, while also fostering a plan for long-term economic sustainability. While the former rests squarely on the City Manager's shoulders, the latter, by charter, is a shared responsibility with the Mayor and the City Council. I’m not alone I suspect, following the process through now in learning that many of us have different visions of what the city should invest in, as opposed to how it spends our money.

Talking about how each of us sees where we live, and how we propose for all of us to get to that place, is an important conversation that for too many years too few of us were involved in. In the past, public hearings were conducted in large rooms with mostly poor turnout; those who did attend and speak made a noise like a BB in a boxcar. And for the most part, all that ever got said was a variation of 'no.' Aside from being the first syllable in Norwich, I’m not sure that’s enough.

We each have priorities or should. I don’t want to poison your well with mine but here goes: our schools. My wife and I had two children in Norwich Public Schools, and you will not find more vocal supporters of its teachers.

That said, I want us to identify and fund expenses directly supporting classrooms and to take ancillary requirements and non-core competencies, where centralization, regionalization, or privatization would create lowered costs for taxpayers and do just that. 

And since I’m feeling snarky, maybe only having (and paying for) one Superintendent and one Assistant Superintendent at a time would encourage parents, residents, and taxpayers to have the faith in our Board of Education they deserve.

I'm having nightmares about the massive and long overdue school construction/reconstruction project, not about the project itself, but rather the course and shape of elementary school education in Norwich when the construction is completed especially if we continue to throw teachers, arts and music programs and who knows what else under the school bus wheels in the name of economy.

What will our children learn, and from whom? Perhaps we'll hold classes in foraging, led by those who once frequented the Rose City Senior Center but whose lifetimes of contributions to every neighborhood in our city have been weighed and found wanting as we keep frantically redrawing the bottom line.

Everything has a price, and everything has a cost--those things we do, and perhaps, more importantly, those that we choose to NOT do. Nothing ever happens, if you don't make it happen. No one can make you a victim without your consent. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” 
In case you haven't figured it out, we are here and now and we’re all we’ve got.
-bill kenny