Dear Editor:

It is easy to overlook the value of the municipal employees of our towns. These dedicated and loyal professionals work hard to make our lives and our society more safe and civil; their work is easily taken for granted. Like clearing the roads or the clerical work that keeps the town’s democratic government, with the many benefits of self rule, functioning.

These people are our neighbors who do not live extravagantly, send their children to the same schools we do, get their cars repaired at the same garages as us, and, in short, face all the problems of living that everyone else does.

Now there is a proposal before the town of Boothbay that we reward them by cutting their pay and benefits — for what? Because we are too stingy to find more revenue in this prosperous town? Have we become that wretched that we cannot find a few dollars more among us that we must then cut these deserving workers’ wages?

Fred W. Nehring
Boothbay