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An Open Letter to Huntington Residents From William Naughton, Superintendent of Highways It has been a privilege to serve as your superintendent of highways for the past 22 years. I appreciate the confidence that voters throughout the Town of Huntington have entrusted in me and am determined to continue to serve our residents and taxpayers in an honest and responsible manner. Although I am a proud Democrat, I recognize that there is no Democratic or Republican - or liberal or conservative -- way to maintain, pave, repair, resurface and reconstruct roads, and ensure proper drainage. I am gratified that all of the recognized political parties in our town have acknowledged the good job I am doing and have endorsed my re-election. Unfortunately, the current town board does not appear to appreciate the widespread support that I have throughout our town. They have sought to diminish my accomplishments by preventing me from filling a number of vacant and much needed positions in the Highway Office and by not allowing me to spend the requisite funds to pave and rehabilitate more roads and improve drainage conditions in many areas of our town -- which you have paid for with your tax dollars. While $35 million in capital spending was approved over the past several months -- much of it towards a second ice rink that will serve just a small percentage of our residents -- I, as an independently elected town official, have been unconscionably deprived of the use of monies in the highway budget to properly maintain and improve roadways that benefit residents in neighborhoods and communities throughout our town. In so doing, our town board has usurped my authority and denied you fair value for your hard-earned tax dollars. The five-year program of road construction, rehabilitation and repair that the Highway Office worked diligently to put together has been jeopardized. Although effective and efficient highway operations have contributed to a $9-million surplus, my office's allocation of funding has been unfairly reduced. The surplus funds, which our profligate town board had nothing to do with creating, have instead been used to prop up the town's bond rating and show a healthy reserve funds balance that otherwise might not exist. While our town board members are quick to allocate borrowed monies toward pet projects benefiting specific communities in the town for which they can then take credit and pose for photo ops, they are apparently not comfortable with the idea of existing funds being used to pay for improvements beneficial to the entire town that fall under the purview of an independently elected town official who is not beholden to them. The jobs performed by highway workers day in and day out may not generate headlines. But they are essential to ensuring that people can travel safely throughout our town. I respectfully ask you to call the supervisor at 351-3030 and the other members of the town board at 351-3172 and urge them to restore the use of funds in the highway budget so that we can continue to ensure better roads for a better Huntington. William Naughton