There is a quiet crisis unfolding in Auburn, and the people responsible are the very ones appointed to prevent it.

The cutting of Auburn’s recreation director out of the budget is not just a personnel decision, it is a statement about who this city values. Under the current leadership of Town Manager Phil Crowell and Assistant City Manager Denis D’Auteuil, the answer is becoming painfully clear: It’s not our children, not working families, and not the middle or lower classes who form the backbone of this community. The wealthy, whose tax bills apparently take precedence over everything else, are the priority here.

Recreation programming is not a luxury. For children in working families, it is often the only structured, enriching outlet they have outside of school. When leaders eliminate the position responsible for running it, they are telling an entire segment of this community that their children simply do not matter.

The board will call this fiscally responsible. But ask the uncomfortable question: whose taxes are being protected? Certainly not the families who rely on affordable recreation programs. Those savings flow upward, to property owners who would never set foot in a city rec program to begin with.

Auburn could be a great place to raise a family. That takes leadership willing to govern for the many, not the few. That leadership does not currently exist here.

Young families considering a move to Auburn should carefully consider what city leaders are prioritizing. As it stands, children are an afterthought. And, until that changes, families deserve to know.

Greg Labonte
Standish