Letter to the Editor: Let's Do it Right and Let's Do it Now

There's an old Indian proverb: "When two elephants fight, it's the ground that suffers".

Building any significant town structure or capability requires a shared sacrifice. Our taxes go up, the town benefits from the new or improved service. Yes, building new schools is expensive. A hundred million dollars just does not go as far as it used to. We will have two modern as-new schools built at once, no small feat, with maximum state reimbursement. The plan is innovative and brilliant. The increased cost now to complete the job, while unfortunate, is capped by the contractor. This is the best deal possible. We'll sort out the blame and recompense down the line. Backtracking to rework the project would significantly increase this cost for a smaller community benefit. Does not make educational, nor fiscal sense.

If the additional funds are not approved, the children will suffer, as they did when drastic cuts were made to programs several years ago. Families will suffer, as they did before, due to the substandard and even draconian limitations of the buildings. The town already decided to make a shared sacrifice and build the schools last year. The proposed solution to move forward, at additional cost, is the most cost-effective at this point. 

The proposed cuts cannot alter the educational parameters set out by the state - we are limited to what can be cut. They are not scare tactics, but real. And if they are scary, they are scary. We cannot go back - we must work within the state mandates. We just cannot say let's reduce the size or scope, because the rework will cost us more in the long run. That is certain. It's easy to cast stones. It is harder to build, and we need to build.

Again - reworking the plan at this point will end up cost taxpayers more in the long-term. The current approach is the right approach. Let's do it right, and do it now.

Sincerely,

John Peter Lee