By working together, village will thrive

It will take a village to help our Village of Barrington.

In order to help our Village of Barrington, we need the citizens to volunteer and give your time, talent and business expertise. We are losing retail businesses, restaurants, car dealerships and service shops. As a result, we lose tax revenues from these businesses which have closed in our village.

We have to find better ways to attract and keep more businesses in our village.

We can better support our local businesses by requiring that our tax dollars be spent with our local retailers.

We need a diversity of skill sets and experiences in order to make better decisions for our community. Business executives, investment advisers, accountants, lawyers, marketing professionals, event program coordinators and retired business professionals are all needed to advise our community.

As citizens, consider attending monthly board meetings to learn about the problems facing our town. Obtain and review meeting minutes and expenditure reports.

Our local governing bodies need engaged citizens to be more involved in this problem solving process. They must be more transparent to the citizens in their business decisions and with the spending decisions of our hard-earned tax dollars.

By doing this, we can help our elected officials make better financial and business decisions which affect our community. The lack of participation in our village government has resulted in governing bodies with very little oversight. This has led to missed business opportunities in the past and will continue in the future.

We can all play a part to give back and volunteer our time to help our village. If we can do this, Barrington can again be a great place to live, work and play.

Christine Valentine

Barrington