SpeakOut
Bury the sword, build a building
Jonathan Dennehy

To the citizens of Ashburnham:

I write to you not on behalf of the Board of Selectmen, but on my own behalf as a citizen of the Town of Ashburnham representing my personal views.

I have read with dismay several weeks worth of negativity in this newspaper expressed by my fellow Ashburnham residents leveling personal attacks against one another. I have talked to many citizens who are angry, stressed out and on edge about the controversy swirling around the Public Safety Project. I see our quaint little community torn apart like no time in my life, and that is quite a statement coming from someone who was in the middle of the Troubles that plagued us during 2004.

The conclusion that I have reached is that we must "Bury the Sword and Build a Building."

In the spring of 2004, it was represented to the voters of this town that for the sum of $6.5 million, we could build a Public Safety Building (housing Police, Fire, EMT and Dispatch) that would suit the needs of the community for many years to come.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the initiative pass at the ballot. We then had a mandate from the people. Well, now more than two years have passed and we have yet to even agree on what kind of building should be built, never mind build it. Tempers have frayed and stalemate has set in.

Many mistakes were made in this interval. I take responsibility for the mistakes that I made or participated in making during this long road to nowhere. I sincerely apologize to each and every citizen in this town for those mistakes, and I vow to make up for them. I also forgive others for the mistakes that they have made during this process, for forgiveness is a necessary component of the ability to move forward and work with each other to finally get this job done.

We have most of the information that we need in order to make a decision on what kind of building to build. It was upon that basis that I recently called for a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 14, so that the citizens of Ashburnham could be given the final word on what building to build and how much to spend on that building. Now the time has come to form a consensus on what building to build and move forward to get the building built.

It would be my hope that we can all put our differences behind us and find compromise on our building. One thing that we all seem to agree on is the fact that we need a building. Let us take that fact and build consensus upon it so that we all move forward together in building the public safety building. Personal attacks, finger-pointing and blame assessment gets us nowhere, and certainly does not get our building built.

Thus, it is with the hope that our small town ties that bind us will prevail over the tribulation of the moment that I ask that we all bury the swords that we wield against one another and build our building.

Sincerely, Jonathan M. Dennehy,

Ashburnham resident