The Groton Town Council is going to hold a "Public Hearing" on the sale of the former William Seely School property on April 7. The kicker? No public allowed because of the COVID-19 emergency.  I feel that this is an illegal meeting because the public and neighborhood residents can't, in real time, be there to ask pertinent questions or make comments on what is being discussed.

The public can email or send letters to the Groton Town Council and town manager to be put into "the official record" of this "Public Hearing." Will this correspondence be read aloud and acted on, on behalf of those citizens by the Town Council or town manager?  Most likely not! 

The right and proper thing to do is postpone the hearing until after the COVID-19 emergency has ended. I ask that the Groton Town Council and town manager reconsider their errant decision and postpone this crucial meeting to a later date. Calling a meeting of such importance a "Public Hearing" is an absolute farce when the public will have no real-time input.

John Irving Suarez

Groton