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Health & Fitness

BET's Biennial Blast

Every Two Years the Board of Estimate and Taxation and its Alumni Meet to Celebrate its Outgoing Members.

At Monday night the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation ("BET") and its recent alumni celebrated the four members stepping down from the BET after its December meeting.

The BET also raised a glass to the memory of , who this fall, and Sam Stowell, its former Chairman, who passed away last weekend. These affairs are always organized by Larry Simon, who also was the Master of Ceremonies and an honoree.

Although Larry and his co-host BET Chair Steve Walko, also an honoree, tried to rally the audience to roast the outgoing members, most resisted roasting and instead showered each with praise.

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At one point things got so bad (or good depending on your perspective) I quipped: "This is the worst roast ever!" The evening started with a tour of the newly enlarged and cocktails and delicious hors d'oeuvres in the community room.

We trooped across Glenville Road to Rebecca's and were greeted by Rebecca herself, who was so effusive in praise of Larry Simon that it was apparent Larry regularly dines there, as should we all based on the fine quality of the food and drink we enjoyed: soup, salad, succulent short ribs of beef followed by baked Alaska. 

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I won't repeat what was said about each honoree who were individually "roasted" but I can tell you what I think about them:

  • Bill Kelly: eighteen years in town and eighteen years of exemplary community service on the RTM, the Board of Education and the BET. Bill also told me he worked on seven school building committees.
  • Jim Campbell: four years on the BET and the current Chairman of the Republican Town Committee. Jim kept his civic and political roles mostly separate on the bipartisan BET except when his political skills were needed to forge a compromise on the funding of the very important MISA project this year.
  • Steve Walko: Chairman of the BET for four years with a solid record of accomplishment who also deserves credit for steering BET approval of two of the most important votes this year in support of and . 
  • Larry Simon: the indispensable man on the BET Budget Committee who deserves credit for crafting eleven town budgets and who, along with Jim Lash, deserves credit for reshaping the town's benefits (healthcare and pensions), capital financing plan and, starting before he joined the BET, the town's IT capabilities.

 

All these men, along with the other men and women who have served on the BET, worked tirelessly (without pay) to make our town a better place to live. By law no member of a municipal finance board may be paid so appropriately for the town's "fiscal watchdogs" last night's affair was a "Dutch Treat." (I must remember to mail that check to Larry someday soon).

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