Letter to the Editor

The following letter to the editor appeared in the August 19 edition of the Longmeadow News and is reprinted here at the request of its author.
_____________________________________________

Dear Editor,

As a regular columnist for the former town website, and a past columnist for the Longmeadow News, I am in a unique position. I have worked with Jim Moran in his capacity as an excellent webmaster, for over a decade. He was and is always professional and helpful. Never did I question his ability as an un-paid volunteer. He was never an employee of the town, so it is more than odd that an elected official called him insubordinate. Jim ran a great website full of useful information for town residents and the world at large. He always was open to suggestions and made improvements to the site very often to make it more user friendly to all. I respect him and his work.

Did our elected officials ever visit the website? If so, they would have noticed the "material" in question was on a link to LongmeadowBuzz not the town website itself. It all makes me wonder why anyone even bothers to give their time to be a thankless volunteer in this distrusting day and age. This town and its organizations and groups have been run by town volunteers for over a century! These people help with the schools, historical groups and senior center not to mention the elected officials who work long hours tirelessly to be professional in unpaid positions! I hope people still get involved with our town, but why do it for free? Now do we have to pay someone to be webmaster? And where are we getting the funds for that? Can the select board please apologize for whatever misunderstanding occurred. Jim has now moved on - its too late to re-hire him as a volunteer.

Is this the way to treat a Citizen of the Year?

Our website should bring people together, not tear them apart!

Good work Jim! It has been a pleasure to work with you for the past eleven years, and THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Betsy H. Port
Longmeadow resident and volunteer