Hebron Dollars & Sense

Kudos to the admin for the new layout of the HDAS website.

Thanks again for providing a place to share / discuss information pertaining to our little town.

While many, if not most, folks here disagree with me 90% of the time, and aren't afraid to let me know it, I think all of us appreciate the opportunity to share our thoughts.

Is there a way to post a traffic counter on the site, that will show the number of hits the community forum gets? Requiring members to login in order to view posts might increase the number of members, perspectives, and discussion, in the community forum.

As for content requests - the "top down" approach page is a couple years out of date. I personally don't think it is very relevant since it does not consider the biggest reason for the biggest expense increase we have every year - binding arbitration.

You're right. I'll remove it. Do you have any ideas as to which direction this site should go?

I want to make the site useful for more of the community.

The site has had very little content posted in the news/main section, for a while now. I don't know if that is directly related to where content came from - sites like the courant.com or journal inquirer, but those have dried up as well.

The community forum, on the other hand, has had a fair amount of sometimes spirited discussion. Without a mod enforcing the posted rules of the forum, a few members have been downright mean, not just to me and a couple other members, but clearly directed to some of our public officials, various board members (past and present).

The name calling, while amusing at times, is clearly intimidating and prevents new members from joining the discussion. I'm a big girl, I can take it, but I am sure others adopt a why bother attitude. If you want a larger audience, make it clear that those already here have to play by the rules.

And of course, change the bogus unenforced rule about no handles for user accounts - I freely admit to breaking this to preserve anonymity. Even while being anonymous, though, for the most part I have tried to remain respectful in most discussions, especially those I disagree with. If a member wouldn't say something to someone else's face, in public or in private, why say it anonymously online?

Much of the discussions here have been related to our local and regional school systems. The information we've gotten for the past year is more readily available than it has been in prior years, but it is still suspect to many. We don't often know what is in the line items - particularly things like the admin expenses and legal fees. There have to be better ways to get questions out to the various boards, and HDAS seemingly used to be able to get some attention to these questions.

I strongly believe that information is key to decision making. The general public is often not very interested in attending various board meetings, but more and more people want to get their information online. Opinions are best formed with information.

All politics are local. Our local politics seem to have more of a bipartisan attitude than some towns.

There has been a huge lack of information on where local candidates stand on various issues. Could HDAS offer links to the local political parties sites, and/or provide a list of questions to candidates, to answer online - the way newspapers used to do?

It might be helpful if there was information about how state legislation may affect our town, and which state representatives are involved, and how we can contact them. State funding to small towns has been very little proportionately, and we should find a way to fight for change to get this improved. But we lack information.

I am sure other members will be interested in responding

I'm asking the user here to come up with questions to ask each candidate or town official so we can compile the answers to help us determine the best person for the job.

So put on your thinking caps and come up with a list, legitimate questions only please, so we can get spending under comtrol.

I sent my comments about the HD&S website to the email address provided. Since there is this posted topic - I need to reply to a statement. Auntie stated: Of course this is TRUE ... most of the town budget is the school budget. These budgets MUST be separated on the ballot to show folks what their tax dollar is supporting. Our town's infrastructure will eventually suffer because of the funding to these schools. Other 'out of the box' ideas should be considered. Give each family enough money to send their kids OFF to private elementary schools and/or request them to home school their own children (and give them a significant property tax break!). Eliminate several of the non-teaching positions (office staff and the administrators).

By the way, no one has been able to explain the $4800 line item for superintendent's travel. One forum user stated this was built into her contract for her commute from the shoreline?!? This article from August 2008 is still relevant: http://tinyurl.com/ccmrh5.

PS: There is a VIEW counter for the forum on the left side of the topic box: