While I attended the Oct. 10 Middlebury selectboard meeting for a separate issue than what was being addressed, I came away feeling fortunate that we have such dedicated and thoughtful board members as well as our new police chief and the professionals of some of our local social agencies speaking about the concerns of our business owners with regards to the tent village downtown and the recent crime sprees. While this is a complicated issue and not easily solved, I went home thinking “what can I do?”

What I decided to do is support our businesses right now while they are concerned about loss of business because of the problems. I’m going to eat at their restaurants and buy items from their stores! That is the small part that I can do now to help them get through this difficult time.

Wendy Warren

Middlebury