Dear Editor:

For those of us who follow local affairs closely, the decision by Middleton Town Council to terminate the job of the CAO makes no sense. Evidence that Middleton was on the right track is clearly laid out in publicly accessible documents. Consider that for years, the Town's sewage system had allowed untreated waste to be discharged directly into the Annapolis River. The Town was placed under order by the Department of Environment to address the problem, but little progress was made until Jemma Lambert came into the job of CAO. Action was immediate. A temporary fix was in place in a few short months, and plans are now well underway to build a new sewage treatment system, with substantial federal and provincial funding secured. The system is intended to be much like the one in Annapolis Royal, including the creation of wetland habitat and public parklands. This is something to celebrate, not pull the plug on. Another good thing? The Town of Middleton now has its finances in order. A structural budget deficit had been the norm for many years, meaning that the Town had been borrowing from its own reserves just to meet its basic operating needs. The CAO helped turn this unsustainable arrangement around in less than one year on the job. For those of us who had the opportunity to work with Ms. Lambert, as I did through my involvement with CARP, it is obvious that she is a very capable, hard-working public servant who got things done and had the best interests of the citizens at heart. Isn't that what we need in local government?



Janet Larkman

Clarence, NS