Brunswick Town Councilor John Perreault did the right thing when he kept the town focused and engaged on the broken sewer pipe at the police station construction site.

He responded to concerns of his constituents living near the site. He upheld his responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of the town’s citizens and workers. He possibly saved the town from severe financial penalties.

Yet he didn’t have the full support of town administration or the Town Council. For some, this issue was just a little sewage spill and not worth the trouble. For some, Perreault is a whistle-blower and should be treated as such. To those it should be asked, shouldn’t the town be setting an example of how to conduct a building project?

If a future private developer allows untreated sewage to discharge on his site, will he say, “Well, the Town did it, what’s the problem?”… or “They ignored it, why can’t I?”

The bigger question is why wasn’t this discharge of pollutants dealt with appropriately and immediately? Why was this condition and remediation left to happenstance of one citizen’s observation and one councilor’s sense of responsibility? Which leads to the question, who is responsible for overseeing the town’s interests during the construction of the new police station?

It has become apparent that neither town administration nor the majority of the council has assumed this responsibility.

Bob Kahn and Douglas Richmond
Brunswick

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