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Community Corner

Dueling Letters

September 4, 2013

In a recent letter to the editor in Voices, John Turk, a supporter of John Monteleone for first selectman, endorsed the concept of a movie theater in Southbury that would incorporate a role for live theater as well. On the surface any reader would not make much more about it. However, as it turns out a second identical letter appeared in the Heritage Villager.

However, the troubling item is that the identical letter appearing in the Villager was authored by John Monteleone. Now either John Turk is plagiarizing or this is a deliberate and thinly veiled effort to work around the Voices policy of not publishing letters from candidates for political office in the months leading up to the election. Or perhaps both “authors” simply think the public is not very perceptive. The entire affair raises ethical concerns about the Republican leadership.

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What is even more troubling is that the letter notes that the proposed movie theater in Southbury should include a cultural focus without revealing that Mr. Monteleone is serving on the Woodbury based Main Street Theater, an organization that has been in consultation with the movie theater developers.  Self-serving and lack of transparency are just two terms that come to mind to describe these actions.

This smacks of back-room politics and disregard for the policy of local institutions like Voices.  Is this what we can look forward to under if John Monteleone is elected? 

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Drew Morten

 

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