Patch Letter: Renduchintala, Jones Say Fund Tolland's 'Future'

To The Editor:

Fund our Future and our Firehouses.

Tolland, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebound our community from Covid-19 by voting YES on May 4 on two crucial community questions.

The first question is approval of the Republican-led town council budget that provides an opportunity for our Tolland’s government and our schools to plan for a successful rebound from the challenges they’ve faced for well over a year now. By supporting our teachers, town staff and frontline emergency workers who had to learn to provide on the spot remote, hybrid, and pandemic-conscious in-person services, we commit ourselves to the thanks we gave by honoring their struggles and sacrifices.

This budget also adapts to the changing needs of our community and provides long-term planning. Voting YES provides needed positions for mental health and emotional services of our students and their families as they mature into adulthood. Voting YES ensures administrative supports that allow for our educators to focus on educating, enhancing their own skills, and investing in technology improvements in the post pandemic world.

Voting YES allows for the recovery of programs lost, remediation for students in need of further support, and maintaining our reform efforts that better serve our students and their families locally while providing cost avoidance opportunities for the district. Voting YES guarantees a strategic focus our town manager has made to bring in additional dollars to our community through a dedicated grant-writer can be fulfilled.

Equally important on the ballot this May 4th, the Town Council unanimously approved a town-wide vote for bonding of up to $5 million to provide the absolutely necessary renovation and replacement of multiple firehouses in our community. These plans, which are over 10 years old and long overdue, take our firehouses on Plains Road and Gehring Road into the 21st Century with ADA compliance, modern furnishings and adequate spacing for our first -responders to effectively serve our community and provide mutual aid to neighboring towns.

And for Crystal Lake Road, removing the dangerous pyrrhotite from the firehouse’s foundations and redesigning the layout meets both current and long-term needs.

We encourage our neighbors to ensure our community comes out from this crisis stronger than ever, and stronger together for our Tolland. Vote YES, and May the 4th be with you.

Steve Jones and Madhu Renduchintala

Tolland

Steve Jones is vice chairman of the Tolland Town Council and Madhu Renduchintala is a member of the Tolland Board of Education.