Letter to the Editor — “Hartman Deserves Better Than Last‑Minute Governance”

For years, Hartman has lived with the consequences of institutional neglect. Our water system didn’t collapse because of a single mistake — it collapsed because agencies delayed action, withheld information, and treated our town as an afterthought until the crisis became impossible to ignore. That pattern didn’t just break our infrastructure. It broke trust, endangered health, and left residents without safe drinking water.

Now, as Hartman approaches a dissolution hearing, we are watching the exact same behavior unfold again.

Two weeks before a hearing that will determine the future of our town, the Secretary of State’s office cannot answer basic procedural questions. Not political questions — procedural ones. Time limits. Witness rules. Exhibit procedures. Recording access. The scope of oral presentations. These are foundational elements of any administrative hearing, and they should have been prepared long before a date was set.

Instead, the Department responded that they will “meet early next week” to discuss my questions. That means the procedures are not finalized. It means participants cannot prepare. It means the State is once again operating with urgency only when it benefits them, and delay when transparency would benefit us.

If respect for being prepared were a thing, we would not be in a health and safety crisis with contaminated water right now.

This is the same institutional behavior that got Hartman into crisis in the first place. When our water system was failing, agencies delayed until the damage was irreversible. When our governance was failing, agencies delayed until the town was nonfunctional. And now, when our community needs clarity to participate in a hearing that could dissolve the town entirely, we are told to wait while the State figures out the rules at the last minute.

Hartman deserves better than last‑minute meetings and vague assurances. We deserve a fair, transparent, and timely process — not another example of the same neglect that has defined our experience for years.

If the State intends to dissolve Hartman, the least they can do is show the respect of being prepared.

Shawna Casey – Hartman Resident