When someone does a good job, I think we should give credit and express our appreciation. I wish to give such credit to two groups of people in Hawley whom I, as a selectman, have the honor to work with. These are the Fire Department (which I am also on) and the Highway Department.
These people are there day after day, keeping us safe, making sure we get where we need to go, and helping make life normal. All too often, we just don’t notice when everything is going right. We should. There is a lot happening behind the scenes that we take for granted and, the truth is, we could never adequately pay these people for everything they do. Notably, in a small community like ours, we also ask our public servants to make due with levels of staff, equipment and funding that are often lower than we might desire. Yet somehow, the job still gets done.
I want to close by recognizing someone who joined our team only a few months ago: our highway superintendent, Brendan Dekoschak. We are very fortunate indeed to have him working for the Town. In the short time he has been here, many residents have commented to me on the great job the road crew is doing. I have seen this up close. Brendan’s thorough, energetic, proactive approach to maintenance, both of roads and equipment, shows very good judgment and is a great benefit to our townspeople and taxpayers, in both the short and long term.
As a Selectman, I look forward to continuing to support him and all our other great town employees and volunteers, to the fullest extent possible.
(Legally, I’m supposed to mention that the opinions I express herein are my own and not necessarily those of the Select Board).
Hussain A. Hamdan
Hawley