text: Bethel first selectman candidates agree on issues, not solutions - NewsTimes
  https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Bethel-first-selectman-candidates-agree-on-12315440.php
  Bethel first selectman candidates agree on issues, not solutions
  Updated 4:06 pm EDT, Sunday, October 29, 2017
  BETHEL — Democratic First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker and Independent challenger Cynthia McCorkindale agree the town's chief elected official should aim to provide fiscal stability, services for seniors and timely information to the public.
  But the candidates have opposing views on how to achieve those goals.
  Knickerbocker, who is running for his fifth term as first selectman, stressed all the town has accomplished in his eight years in office during an Editorial Board meeting last week at The News-Times. He cited the completion of three bridge projects, an improved bond rating and construction on the region's first solar farm as achievements during his time in office.
  Noting he was elected during the height of the country's recession, Knickerbocker said he is prepared to deal with the ramifications of the state's fiscal problems. "I am no stranger to financial challenges," he said.
  McCorkindale, who is cross endorsed by the Republican party, said the town needs to "think outside the box" when it comes to cutting costs. "It's time to be a little bit circumspect and to focus on things within the organization or the town where we can save costs without sacrificing quality," she said, during the editorial board meeting.
  McCorkindale, a current Board of Finance member who once served on the Board of Education and is former chair of the Bethel Action Committee, suggested the town should consider combining departments and training employees to work in various offices.
  "My feeling is to just go through and research each department and see where it will be possible," she said. "The most important thing is not exactly collapsing departments, but cross-training employees and using them in different facets, rather than having them in one department exclusively."
  She has heard opposing views on the idea to merge the tax collector and tax assessor offices.
  But Knickerbocker said this would not work, noting that during his time in office a position in the tax assessor's office was changed from part-time to full-time because of the department's heavy workload.
  With the change, the town added $30,000 to the budget for salary and benefits, but increased revenues by $300,000, he said.
  Both candidates agreed more needs to be done to help the town's growing senior population.
  "We have to look at that segment of the population that are struggling and we have to make sure that they have opportunities to afford to live in Bethel," McCorkindale said.
  She said she wished the town had bought Bishop Curtis Homes on Simeon Road to provide affordable housing for seniors.
  Knickerbocker said the town was outbid on the facility, but that he has talked to the chair of the Housing Authority about how to expand the town's affordable housing options.
  He also oversaw the delivery of the Senior Center's first handicapped accessible van earlier this month. "Many of these people can no longer drive, they are not permitted to drive, they can no longer afford a car, and the SweetHART services was proving to be inadequate to do things like get them to shopping appointments or get them to doctor's appointments," Knickerbocker said.
  The candidates also touched on what McCorkindale said was a lack of communication to certain residents about this month's referendum on the elementary schools renovation project.
  McCorkindale said she was frustrated Knickerbocker and Superintendent Christine Carver did not mail a letter about the project to voters, as she said they promised to do.
  Knickerbocker said his attorney advised against sending the letter because doing so could violate state law, which prohibits incumbents from mailing materials that promote their candidacy within three months of an election. He was fined $1,000 last year for two letters he sent before the 2015 election.
  Knickerbocker admitted he is struggling with how to get information to the public.
  "There's so many people who no longer read a traditional newspaper," he said. "That's a choice that they've made and they want someone to proactively approach them and say, 'Here, you have to read this.'"
  McCorkindale described a "schism" in the town population, of people who are involved with the schools and more informed, and those who are not, either because they don't have children or their children are no longer in the school system.
  "They don't necessarily know as deeply what's going on, as the people who are right in the schools [do]," she said. "I think we have to do more to include [them]."