A Message from First Selectman Bindelglass

Update for 3/19/2021

Good evening,

The news on Covid is mostly good. The state continues to vaccinate more and a wider range of people. The CDC says that small gatherings of people who have been vaccinated can be done without masks. In Easton for the second week in a row the rate of infected per 100,000 people has edged higher. For the week ending March 13, the rate is 18.1 with 352 positive cases overall in town. This coupled with rising rates in parts of the country and the images of crowded beaches filled with spring break party goers should still lead us to be cautious.

For my time as your first selectman, the coming weeks will be significant. Next week the BOF will be holding their budget public hearing on Monday March 22. It will be held at Samuel Staples Elementary School at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Channel 79 and YouTube. The agenda is posted on the town website under agendas and Board of Finance. The budget presentation is posted under government, then finance and then budgets. The budgets for the town, the Easton Board of Education, and the region 9 Board of Education will be discussed. After public input at the hearing, the Board of Finance will begin reviewing individual budgets March 24, 25, and 31, all at 7 p.m. and all virtually. Links will be posted.

The special town meeting will be held on March 23 at Samuel Staples Elementary School at 7 p.m. Again, the agenda is posted online under agendas and town meeting. You should have all received a post card describing the town meeting in the mail as well. For those who are interested, the postcards were printed through the Connecticut Council of Municipalities for $267. While these were printed in color, the town could have saved $100 by doing black and white which we will consider next time. Postage cost $552.57. After the questions are discussed, there will be a machine vote on each of the five questions which will be held on March 30, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at SSES.

Due to state Covid regulations, both the town meeting and budget hearing will be limited to 80 persons from the public in addition to those on the panels. This will be first come, first served as it always has been. As a courtesy, if you do not plan to speak please watch the proceedings from home. Also, if you have spoken and others are waiting outside, please allow them to come in and speak. That is a simple courtesy which I hope all will show to their neighbors.

Again, I will stress that every citizen of Easton will have the ability to vote on the issues at hand. That is what democracy is all about. Democracy also is not free, and it asks of its citizens to be informed and to participate. In a small town like ours it is critical because we are the legislators of the town. Please educate yourself about the issues. Information, particularly for the health district and the Sport Hill path, has been public for months and is readily available. Most importantly, come out Tuesday March 30 and make your voice heard. If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected].

After much discussion and input, we have decided to leave the dog park open for residents and non-residents. Eastonites were split and other towns were almost universally open to residents and non-residents. Policing is near impossible. The Board of Selectmen and director of Park and Recreation reached this decision acknowledging that people in town were divided. We will post signs and hope that people can police themselves in terms of picking up after their dogs and keeping them under control.

We have a busy week coming up. Be involved and participate. Until then have a great weekend!

David Bindelglass

Virtual Discussion Examines Meaning of Democracy

The Mark Twain Library and the Redding League of Women Voters, in association with the Easton Public Library, will present “Conversations: Truth, Myth & Democracy.” William Jelani Cobb — Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

The virtual discussion between historian Dr. Jelani Cobb and philosopher Dr. Jason Stanley will be held on Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. The program will be moderated by journalist Tina Rosenberg and examines the underlying meaning of democracy and how democracy can matter even when people have very different ideas about what it should look like.

The program launches a series that will focus on addressing the difficult issues of truth telling and myth busting within democracy by bringing community conversations to help promote education, informed dialogue and civil discourse. In addition to the Easton Public Library, the series is in association with the Weston Public Library, Friends of the Weston Public Library and Newtown’s C.H. Booth Library, the League of Women Voters of Weston and the League of Women Voters of Northern Fairfield County; and, in partnership with media sponsor WSHU Public Radio. Jason Stanley

“It is essential to engage in sustained conversations daring to ask, ‘How do we know what we know and who told us? And, when they told us, did they tell the truth?'” said Tom Kilbourn, ordained Episcopal priest and a member of the Redding League of Women Voters. “These conversations must be grounded in intellectual authority with tested thoughts and ideas placed attentively on the side of the scale for justice and mercy and common humanity.”

At a time when American democracy has been challenged by the questioning of truth and the fostering of myth, the program is devoted to exploring how caring citizens from disparate groups can find common ground through informed dialogue and civil discourse. The series of conversations was inspired in part by the polarization and divisive nature of the last year. The intent is to better understand the world we currently live in by inviting renowned historians, philosophers, social psychologists and journalists to share their knowledge and exchange ideas about what, why and how issues are pulling us so far apart. Tina Rosenberg

“The intent of these collaborative conversations began as a way to offer our community an opportunity to further the discussion on race in a safe and healthy environment,” said Mark Twain Library Adult Program Coordinator Elaine Sanders. “In partnership, we have expanded the conversation in the hopes of fostering civic and civil dialog.”

This program follows a number of collaborative conversations organized by the Redding League of Women Voters and the Mark Twain Library that began in the fall of 2019 with a then in-person series of talks with Williams College professor Charles Dew about his memoir, The Making of A Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History and the Slave Trade. That event inspired a number of programs in 2020 — both live and virtual — from author talks to discussions such as that of Ava Duverny’s powerful documentary “13th.”

— Dr. Jelani Cobb is a historian, author, journalist and professor who focuses on race, the police, and injustice. He currently teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and serves as a Frontline correspondent and New Yorker staff writer. Dr. Cobb’s most recent book is The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress. He was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Commentary and won the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism. Dr. Cobb is prominently featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary13th, about the current mass incarceration of Black Americans, which traces the subject to its historical origins in the Thirteenth Amendment.

Dr. Jason Stanley is a philosopher, author, professor and expert on fascism who writes about authoritarianism, propaganda, free speech and mass incarceration, among other topics. He is currently a professor of philosophy at Yale University and contributes articles to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Review, The Guardian and other publications. His most recent book is How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Dr. Stanley is winner of the 2007 American Philosophical Association book prize and the 2016 PROSE award for the subject area of philosophy.

Tina Rosenberg is an award-winning journalist and author who writes about political violence and how new democracies deal with the crimes of past dictatorial regimes. For 10 years she was a member of the New York Times editorial board writing editorials on foreign affairs. Her popular New York Times column, “Fixes,” focuses on exploring solutions to major social problems. Rosenberg is winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, which spreads her passion for rigorous reporting on solutions to social problems. Her most recent book is Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World. Her mother lives in Redding.

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. The Mark Twain Library is owned by the Mark Twain Library Association. It was founded in 1908 by Samuel Clemens — Mark Twain himself — one of Redding’s most celebrated residents. Visit www.marktwainlibrary.org for more information.