REMINDER: Town meeting on the Killingworth town hall addition tomorrow, July 17, 2012

A town meeting has been scheduled to further discuss the new town hall addition, which will be held at the Killingworth Elementary School on Tuesday, July 17th, starting at 7:00 PM.  Residents and business owners are invited to attend and discuss their concerns.  There will be no voting at the town meeting other than to determine the finalized hours of the referendum scheduled on July 24th, currently proposed to open at 6:00 AM to make voting more convenient for the residents.

The Killingworth Republican Town Committee, which represents the registered Republican voters in the town of Killingworth, has decided by an overwhelming majority vote to officially condemn the town hall addition in the project's current form, over the following concerns-

1) The project contains too many controversial features which are unnecessary for the operations of town government, such as an open cathedral style post and beam ceiling, weather vane and cupola, geothermal heating system, and other amenities chosen to make the design unique among other Connecticut town halls.  These features significantly increase the cost of the project while returning questionable tangible benefits to the town.

2) The promoters of the project do not offer any alternative, less costly options.  Repairing the current structure, replacing the prefabricated modules with new modules, relocating the town hall complex to one of the many empty buildings elsewhere in town, and other cheaper options, have all been declined due to unsatisfactory reasons.  For example, one reason the project planners stated the former Holly Loft structure was deemed unsuitable was because of the inflexible demand to incorporate a 75 seat meeting hall as an uncompromising condition to the project, and one of the major reasons listed as a factor for the new town hall addition is the leaking roof of the current modules, which would be far less expensive to simply have it repaired.

3) Despite the listed cost estimate of $3.5 million, the true cost of the project still isn't known, as estimates have ranged from anywhere from $4.6 million to even $7.6 million due to the many factors that cannot be fully documented (I.E. the going rate for labor).  Moreover, the financing of the project will include a tax increase which will be, on average, $70 per taxpayer per year for the next twenty years, although town businesses will necessarily be required to pay more due to their higher gross worth.  In addition, the mil rate will need to be increased again (the exact amount is to be determined at a later date, but current estimates hold it at .03 mils).  This is easily one of the most expensive building projects in the town's history, and with so many people out of work, residents, business owners, and the town of Killingworth simply cannot afford this excessively large expenditure in the current state of the economy.

The Killingworth Republican Town Committee encourages all concerned taxpayers of Killingworth (as well as residents of other towns who operate businesses in the town of Killingworth) to attend the town meeting to address their concerns, and urges everyone to attend the town vote at the referendum on July 24th to vote against the project.

For more information, please visit www.KillingworthGOP.org