Attend Palm Tree informational meetings

In the upcoming weeks there will be two town-hall style meetings to inform the public of the impacts to the town of Monroe by the formation of the new town of Palm Tree.
Elected representatives from our town and the incorporated villages, as well both local school districts, will be on this panel.
United Monroe has also been invited to participate as they were instrumental in negotiating this controversial political agreement.
Since this agreement has been reached, UM has publicly defended this settlement and they have not surprisingly been enthusiastically encouraging a "yes" vote in November; while at the same time strongly encouraging attendance at these informational meetings.
Recognizing here that the UM leadership has a vested political interest in the outcome of this vote, the concern that this event could easily be transformed into nothing more then a campaign event is real.
Folks, we are in a very interesting situation here in our town, so ask yourself this as you ponder the above commentary:
If three years ago Harley Doles and Gerry McQuade met privately with members of Kiryas Joel and negotiated a land deal where 220 acres left the town tax base, do you think that the leaders from UM would have stood by idly embracing that plan?
I'm not sure any of us would have. But since it's been packaged in a nice slogan and we've become united with the "good" Alliance faction against the "bad" KJPE, are we now willing to accept this major land grab?
Again, to some degree, separation may be a positive development in the short run for our town, but the long-term impacts of this deal remain to be seen, no matter what anyone is telling us.
In order to ensure that we, the public, are properly and effectively informed though, we should all attend these meetings and ask questions, lots of them, and demand forthright responses - not the political talking points we have grown accustomed to recently.
Tom Lapolla
Monroe