Please allow me to thank you for taking firm action with the city budget. I have been watching carefully to try to understand the issues you are dealing with, so I can appreciate your position and the choices you must make. It looks like a very difficult task to choose where to cut funding, and where to keep it, and there’s only so much that can be scraped together from volunteers and donors.
I know of a petition asking to keep funding to the community groups. I hope that you can consider ways to use the community groups to aid those with low incomes, perhaps redirecting funding to the groups to aid those in need, but I understand that although your office has provided a great amount of information concerning the budget, I don’t know all that you have to work with.
What I do know is that when I lived in the Two Rivers Community Group catchment area, they changed my life. They showed me what it means to have a community connection, and although I’ve had to relocate, I haven’t forgotten them. Not every community group is the same; I haven’t had any connection at all to the Hanlon Creek Community Group, probably because they are so remote from my home. Still, they may be a strong resource for you when using your funds in a strengthening fashion.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter. Your task of balancing the budget is a difficult one, and it may be you will have more negative responses than positive, but I am grateful for your efforts. Thank you! CB