Community Update

IPN Statement 8/15/13

Since its founding in 2007,
the Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) has made a significant contribution to
moving Newtown forward. IPN has provided the community with greater choices in
candidates, encouraged robust discussions and demonstrated real leadership with
a focus on quality education, communication, accountability and transparency in
government. The focus of our party has always been to stimulate new thinking
and new approaches to improving life in our community and our schools. We have
advocated for better strategic, long-range planning processes (including a
thorough review of the past plans for Fairfield Hills), improved financial review
processes, easier access to government data and documents, and better and more
effective communication between our local government, school district and
citizens. The residents of Newtown have seen improvements in all these areas as
a result of our contributions working with our colleagues in other parties.

Since the tragedy of December
14th, like so many others in town, we have been directing our
energies on the healing process for our town, focusing on efforts such as the
Newtown Volunteer Task Force, Healing Newtown Through the Arts, the Newtown
Action Alliance, The Volunteer Center, appointed boards and commissions, and
many others. The Municipal Elections are approaching and we believe that we can
best serve the community by continuing to direct much of our personal energies
to the healing process, thus the IPN will not be offering a slate of candidates
in the 2013 elections.  IPN is strongly committed to Newtown and will
continue to strive for excellence in education and open, transparent, accountable
government. During the course of the election, we intend to offer our thoughts
on ways our government and schools can move forward by stimulating accurate and
fact based discussions among the candidates and the public so voters will be
well prepared to make informed decisions.  Our desire is to see candidates
elected who will build upon the gains we have seen in our community since IPN
was founded.

We look forward to continuing
to provide constructive input on town and school issues over the next two years
and hope you will feel free to contact us with your questions or concerns
during this election season.