But guess what? At the paper, via Sound Off, letters and comments to the editor, supporters of the Garden Goddess, aka Gwenythe Harvey of Litchfield, have outnumbered critics of this expenditure.
Coe Park is staggeringly beautiful, one of the best things downtown Torrington has going for it. That's the typical refrain, and the cost is covered by the Coe Park trust fund, not by taxpayers.

Then there's another visible downtown fixture, the Trinity Episcopal Church, which dates back to 1897 at Prospect and Water streets. The church is trying to raise $500,000 to restore its historic clock tower.

If successful, and the church is about $200,000 of the way toward its goal so far, you'll once again be able to look skyward and see what time it is while shopping downtown. And once again, the clock's 1,000-pound bell will sound on the hour.

Again, rather than just choosing not to give toward this project, a small minority feel the need to criticize those who do, asking, for example, how many children $500,000 would feed.
Acute, basic needs should be a community's first priority, and Northwest Connecticut, led by the United Way of Northwest Connecticut, whose mission is centered on supporting agencies that help with "basic needs," has always been generous in responding.
But projects relating to a community's appearance, and nowhere is that more important than the downtown in communities such as Torrington and Winsted, can generate sustainable economic dividends.
Torrington is lucky to have non-taxpayer-funded sources of investment in its downtown appearance. The gardens at Coe Park are covered by the trust. The Trinity Church clock tower project by private donations. And downtown is boosted by every landlord and small business that takes pride in the appearance of their storefront and spends that extra amount of money to look great, from the sign in front of the Burns, Brooks and McNeil insurance building on Water Street, to all the work that's being done (over so many months) to make the Cambridge Brew Pub an attractive fixture on Main Street.
Conversely, what does more harm to the appearance and reputation of Torrington and Winsted, downtown and as a whole, than empty storefronts that sit for months or years, standing out as dingy, neglected signals to prospective entrepreneurs and shoppers that there's little reason to invest one's attention and money here.
The people who are taking the leap and making investments on their own don't need a pat on the back, or taxpayer funding, just a local government and community at-large that will make sure the publicly maintained areas on one side of them don't drag down the appearance of their own storefront, and that some accountability or pressure is brought upon the absentee landlords on the other side.
Matt DeRienzo is publisher of The Register Citizen. He can be reached at 860-489-3121, ext. 350, or by email at mderienzo@registercitizen.com.