Eight Reasons Enfield Republicans Should Drop the Pride Flag Referendum

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  In 2022, the Town Council, under a Democratic majority, approved a policy allowing Pride flags to be displayed at Town Hall during Pride Month in June. After retaking the majority in 2024, Republicans passed an ordinance banning all non-government flags from government buildings. That should have been the end of it. But it wasn't. After forming a Charter Revision Commission, its chair, Mayor Ken Nelson, sought to include what amounts to a permanent Pride Flag ban in the town charter. Changing the town charter requires voter approval through a referendum. If voters approve the measure, future councils must follow the rule unless a new referendum overturns it. Mayor Nelson has been the strongest advocate for putting this on the ballot. "Can the town buildings be used to push a personal ideology on the residents of Enfield?" he asked at the Commission's final meeting. "It is a political issue—it's not our billboard." Last week, the Charter Commission dead...

Enfield finally gets its own Central Park

 

Freshwater Pond Enfield CT

The improvements to Higgins Park, the area behind the town hall, are giving Enfield something it never really had: a central park. This park is large enough for community events and gets many of them.

The town is adding parking, exercise stations, and "potential additional walking trails, a sidewalk connecting the upper and lower parking lots, and a brick-paved courtyard that would be built behind Enfield Express," reported the Journal Inquirer on Aug 5th. The new bandstand also seems complete.

Enfield has a lot of open space and walking areas, especially around the Scantic River area, but it's never really had a park that the entire town could call its own. Brainerd Park, in the northern part of town, is more of an area for that neighborhood. It's never been a place for town-wide activities.

Enfield's central park (i.e. Higgins Park) is especially attractive because of its connection to the walking path across from the town hall along Freshwater Brook that leads to Freshwater Pond. The area is gorgeous this time of year.

Also, wouldn't it be wonderful if there was some way to extend the Freshwater Brook trail to the mall area? A place for walkers and bikers that also extends to the train station. I can't imagine that happening very easily, if at all, but it's the type of thing Enfield needs if it wants to become a walkable community.

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