Having read supervisor candidate John Klink's tirade against me in the Oct. 5, 2007 The Citizen, I feel compelled to respond.

First, Mr. Klink seems to infer that my primary reason for resignation was a host of problems which I supposedly had brought upon the town. Most of the people in our town are fully aware that my wife suffered a major stroke Oct. 20, 2006. Her health and welfare became my paramount concern. Had Hazel's situation not come about, I would still be sitting in the supervisor's office.

Mr. Klink, you are, indeed, attempting to cover the tracks which you and your Democrat cohorts mistakenly left behind in a 29-year autocratic rule of our town:

€ $100,000 legal fees incurred due to revenge driven motives when you failed in your moves to take a citizen's home without paying for it.

€ Computer records destroyed and erased.

€ Cessation of record keeping after '06 election results were in.

€ Invoices, reminders, records books dumped in huge boxes in former supervisor's office.

€ Water/sewer billing computer hidden away behind a mountain of paper in a closet. Perhaps this was a childish way to hide the fact that water billing inaccuracies went back far, far before Jan. 1, 2006.

€ Did Mrs. Burn's expertise, knowledge and experience worry your people? Apparently! You must have felt safer when you got her out and the “veteran” back in. What is your comfort level now while the comptroller's office is investigating past years in our town?

I suggested many things for the betterment of our town, among them, the citizen's assessment advisory board, introductory discussions with OWL regarding a lake steward, investigating possibility of a local police force, new equipment and study of an enlarged playground in the hamlet, securing a comprehensive town workers' manual outlining their duties.

Yes, your last paragraph does describe the ideal qualities of our elected leaders. They do not describe candidate Klink. In my abbreviated time in office a fresh wind blue at town hall. That fresh wind can continue to blow at Owasco town hall when Ellie Beck and the entire Republican slate is voted in on Election Day.

Merrill Badman

Owasco

Badman is a former Owasco supervisor