Ms. Linda Santarella

Frustrated with the lack of quorum on the Representative Town Meeting, lifelong Darien resident and 18-year Republican RTM member Linda Santarella is looking for "bigger challenges in her run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen.
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"Everybody encouraged me to do so, she said Monday during an interview in the offices of the Darien News~Review, adding she would have not interviewed the Republican Town Committee for candidacy if Republican Selectman Joseph Warren were going to try for another term as a board member.
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As a member of the Board of Selectmen, Ms. Santarella said she would like to see the town acquire the 12-acre Procaccini property for public recreational use, maintain its AAA bond rating and revitalize the Downtown Task Force on Downtown Improvement, of which she was a member for eight years.
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Concerning the issue of future plans for Tokeneke Elementary School to refurbish or replace the XXX-year-old building, Ms. Santarella said the Board of Selectmen's function is to help the Board of Education, which owns the school, with the project at their request.

"The only responsibility the Board of Selectmen has in that process is when the Board of Education has done their homework it's their baby, so to speak they will determine to do whatever, and then they will come to the Board of Selectmen to create a building committee, she said."Some people are saying that the Board of Selectmen should call the Board of Education.I don't believe that's how the process works.

Remarking on the job the present administration has done in recent years, Ms. Santarella said the board has helped with the accomplishment of several objectives, including the expansion of McGuane Park, the building of the new Darien Nature Center and the completion of the Holmes Elementary School playing fields."I think it's very easy, during a political election, to be taking pot shots at one another, she said, declining to mention the names of any board members."But if you're going to be taking pot shots and you've been a member of that board, just keep in mind the pot shots you're taking.You're a member of the board and are part of the process.

Ms. Santarella commented on the board's handling of plans for recreational space at Cherry Lawn Park, for which the board has been criticized as working behind the scenes."It's the shoulda-coulda-woulda syndrome, but with the whole Cherry Lawn issue, it was a very unfortunate situation, she said."In the end, the Board of Selectmen and the Parks and Rec Commission did hold their public hearing, so they did take care of the matter.Maybe they didn't take care of it, in some people's eyes, as appropriately they would have liked them to.

Mentioning other issues of importance, Ms. Santarella considers support of the Darien High School building project a "no-brainer and claims there needs to be better communication between the board and the Planning and Zoning Commission over downtown parking.

"I have never believed we had a parking problem downtown, she said."I believe we have traffic congestion problems due to I-95.In addition, Ms. Santarella does not want the seniors to be without a senior center, no matter what the plans are for the current facility.

"I will never move those seniors out of that building until they can go out that door and into a new door, she said."I know how precious they are.They're full of pride, they're very private people, they don't like change at all, and they ask very little of us.On the issue of the Friends of Darien Library's plans for a larger library, Ms. Santarella said, "I'm waiting to see what they're going to do.In closing, Ms. Santarella, who represented RTM's District III during her five years as the vice-chairman of the Planning, Zoning and Housing Subcommittee and 12 years as its chairman, wanted to shatter the "perception that she only cares about District III and is "anti-education.

"It's almost funny, she said."Someone who very much like to make that casethat in fact is just not true.Ms. Santarella is a member of the Parent-Teacher Organizations of Holmes, Ox Ridge and Royle elementary schools, Middlesex Middle School and Darien High School and a Royle School fundraising chairman.She has also organized the Middlesex Middle School Career Day for two years and is a Council of Darien School Parents budget representative for Holmes and Ox Ridge elementary schools, Middlesex Middle School and Darien High School.