Down town celebrations

To whom it may concern.

I am a town meeting member and I am concerned and upset about the town funds being spent on closing down the down town area for the many Brazilian soccer games.  The costs include  police overtime and DPW overtime for taking down and putting up barriers.

These disruptions are not even for the final game.

The Brazilian community is celebrating but it is disrupting traffic flow thru the down town neighborhoods.   It causes congestion.  Busses are not able to follow normal routes. Some folks including the elderly and disabled had to walk long very distances.  There are safety hazards and traffic violations.   I see cars going the wrong way on one way streets. It is a bit out of control.   

We do rejoice with the Brazilians for winning.

It seem that we celebrate soccer games,  but we don’t celebrate the 4th of July .

From the taxpayer point of view,  it doesn’t seem fair we that we don’t celebrate independence day.  We close off the down town for all the Brazilians but lets have 4th  of July celebration in order to balance it out.   We don’t want to stop soccer celebrations but  lets be fair here. This is America.  We should recognize America’s holiday.

I am volunteering to head up the 4th of July celebration for 2015.  Please contact me if you want to help in this effort.  smarshall5683@gmail.com.  Of course if the U.S.A. wins the world cup in soccer, we will have an early celebration this year. There’s always a chance. Keep your fingers crossed.

Steven J. Marshall,  Town Meeting Member, pct. 14

God Bless America