As a Groton town councilor, I read with much interest the guest commentary June 7 — “The Town Council is Ripping Groton Apart” — by former deputy mayor and city councilor Paul Duarte. He details how there was a need for the widening of city roads, improved storm drainage and sidewalks to provide safe travel, and notes these roads still require high maintenance today. It sounded as if the current city mayor and council wrote these words, because this is what they have been telling the Groton Town Council in budget sessions for the past three months.

The town and city councils together established a committee to study the roads and both public works departments. Tthis committee (three members from each council) spent considerable time dissecting the costs in each department. The committee, in an effort to determine comparable metrics, used the cost per lane mile metric to compare department costs. As it turned out, Groton City spent twice as much as Groton Town.

City officials detailed all the reasons why it costs more (sewers, non-state feeder roads, etc.). Members of the town council understand there are differences — so we requested details. In fact, we asked three or four times for actual invoices to prove exactly what costs so much more and we received nothing. The city mayor told us she did not understand our request.

This amounts to roadblocks and stall tactics to avoid answering the hard questions and providing the facts. We have told the City Council on several occasions to show us the details — why the maintenance of sewers, sidewalks and wide roads necessitate double the cost of town roads. We get no information in return. If the town council received evidence justifying the higher costs, I believe it would give the city the money requested.

We are a town of 40,000 with a severe duplication of services that are costing all taxpayers money they cannot afford to pay.

Duarte wrote that, “The Groton Town Council wants to spend as little money as possible in maintaining this section of Groton, while extracting the maximum amount of taxes from it.” He could not be more wrong. Per Charter, the city deserves to be paid for their roads, but it does not say anywhere in the charter that the taxpayers of Groton should just turn over money with no oversight.

Finally, Duarte spends a considerable amount of words telling us why we cannot create efficiencies in the city. I would challenge the City Council to stop driving the stake between the two municipalities and come together to save all taxpayers money.