JOHN PAGLIARINI’S Feb. 18 Commentary piece “Whopper woes to create Westconnaug” attacking my proposal for a new town, Westconnaug — composed of Exeter, West Greenwich, Western Coventry, Foster, Glocester and Scituate — requires a response. The proposed town would unite the most rural areas in the Pawcatuck Borderlands, the largest stretch of undeveloped forest between Washington, D.C., and Boston, into one town. This would obviate the need to have, as we currently do, five police chiefs, five school superintendents, five public works directors, five town clerks, and so on, in an area of only 42,000 people.

First of all — and I mean this sincerely and not sarcastically — it would have been a good idea for Mr. Pagliarini to have read the bill I introduced before criticizing.

Here are the points he missed: There would be no changes of address. Post offices are not affected at all; Greene would still be Greene; Chepachet, Chepachet; Hope, Hope, etc. etc. No one would have to change his or her driver’s license, or credit cards, or oil-delivery address. No new letterheads or business cards would be required. Libraries would remain just as they are. Most of all the libraries in Westconnaug are privately chartered, in any event. Deeds and mortgages would still be valid. (The bill has a provision for continuity.) Businesses would not be affected, except that their taxes would be lower. In fact, every taxpayer would enjoy lower taxes.

New plats and lots would not be necessary. The business of assessing taxes would remain the same, but we would have a single assessor’s office, at substantial savings.

The proposed act has a section dealing with bonded indebtedness, and with towns that have substantial reserve funds. The indebtedness would continue as the debt of Westconnaug, any reserve funds would be returned to the taxpayers who paid the money in. These would be some of a number of items taken care of during a year-and-a-half transition period as spelled out in the act I introduced.

Mr. Pagliarini worries about having buildings “large enough to house super-sized staffs.” He misses the whole point. The present five town-hall staffs will no longer be necessary. There will be one town-hall staff, one police chief, one set of dispatchers, and one public works chief. Think especially of this: one superintendent of schools and one superintendent’s staff.

The savings from these consolidations would be very substantial, well into the millions. The taxpayers of Westconnaug, all of whom live in the most rural part of our state, and want to see it stay rural, would be the beneficiaries.

Mr. Pagliarini talked about a loss of a sense of place and of history. I do not think this will happen. If, for example, you live in Hope, you will still identify with that village, your kids will start at the Hope School, you will have the Hope Library, and the Hope Little League Field. Your sense of history of Hope and of Scituate will be the same. I am not re-writing the history of the towns. I would not wish or attempt to. But I do think it is time to get an efficient, lower-cost government.

Some of Mr. Pagliarini’s criticisms border on being silly. Re-painting public-works trucks, loss of political gabfests at transfer stations, what county would Westconnaug be in, new zip codes, etc. Come on.

It is interesting that almost all of the criticism of the proposal comes from government employees or those vested in the present governments, whereas nearly all of the many, many favorable comments I have received have come from private citizens — taxpayers. The proposal, by the way, leaves approval of the idea in the hands of the people — not the government — in the proposed area, this November.

Anyone reading the recent Journal series on the bloated size of Rhode Island state and municipal government would conclude that we simply have too much government with too many layers that are too costly. In America’s smallest state, with one of the smallest populations, we have unique opportunities to make government more efficient. Consolidating towns with much in common is a good start.

Lastly, one page of history on this topic is particularly enlightening. In 1781, when the General Assembly divided Scituate in half to create the Town of Foster, it offered the following justification for creating the new town:

“[The current town of Scituate] is very extensive, and inconvenient for transacting public business, it being near twelve miles in length and eight and a half in breadth; that many of the freemen live twelve miles from any convenient place for doing public business, and that other disadvantages attend its present situation. . . . ”

Mr. Pagliarini, it’s 2008. Get off your high horse!

Nicholas Gorham is a Republican state representative from Greene.