Last night's Town Council meeting was frustrating. I would love to write a post about Black Bear (they're going to close it) or about sewer rates (they're going up) but the school facilities issue was on the agenda and it was a doozy. Here's the recap:
First off, I've been kicking myself for sending a rant-y, unedited email to a couple of town councilors and the school board chairman the other day in response to an Efficiencies group meeting Monday night. It was pretty bad. As soon as I pressed send, I wished I could take it back, but it was too late.
At least last night I realized that I haven't cornered the market on crazy in this town, that's for sure.
The SB lawyer and TC lawyer have been working on an agreement at the request of the town council. This was first presented at a previous TC meeting and I wrote about it here. Again, I really didn't think this would be a big deal. This article in the Exeter Newsletter yesterday explained the agreement and I thought this would be a formality.
Instead, it is a bureaucratic mess. Truly ridiculous. And this is where I got ANGRY. The lawyer talked about the percentage of the land that would be "returned" to the Town in the event that a school didn't pass/get built. That's OK--made sense to me--but then talked about how they were hung up on some language if the school were to lease the property and how that arrangement would work. This ludicrous conversation went on too long and was made worse when Paul Dietterle stood up and suggested that the council should "consider abandonment of some sort." Meaning that if a school was built, but then gets abandoned for some reason, what would happen then? (Apparently schools get abandoned often??) Who gets compensated and how? That's when I dropped an F-bomb in the audience (As in, are you f-ing kidding me?) Kind of under my breath, but loud enough that the reporter next to me and Rick Malasky heard it (Sorry!!)
Some more gems from this evening:
"This is a perfect example of how we are wasting our money and wasting our time."--Al Zink
Yes.
"It's really starting to feel like we are dragging our feet on this."--Phil Nazzaro
YES!
"I think this is lunacy."--Al Zink
YES!!!!
"It's bureaucracy at it's worst."---Phil Nazzaro
OH. MY. GOD. YES!!!
The thing is, I sat in a meeting on Monday and listened to people talk about how the town and school should be working together. I had some concerns about that meeting and the divisiveness I feel in our community and that's what prompted the crazy rambling email I sent to Mike LaBranche and Al Zink (Sorry, guys) I kicked myself for sending it, thinking that I was probably doing more harm than good. But then I heard the lawyer (who is acting at the request of the TC) talk about our funds and their funds and I heard Mr. Levy ask about wether or not the town would be getting the right percentage back from their money and I truly wonder if we can ever work together. Luckily there were people in the audience and some councilors who questioned how this could possibly be happening.
Phil Nazarro compared this to the worst pre-nup ever, and I couldn't agree more.
I know that I won't feel bad the next time I suggest that the efficiency committee is trying to strong arm the SB into something (yeah, it was a bad email). And I won't feel bad for suggesting that our town is divided. Don't talk about their money and our money and then wonder why we don't trust you.
Not to mention the fact, that in the end, most people just want a safe, affordable facility where our kids can go to school. No one is trying to pull a fast one and this all just left me sad.
I want to place blame and point fingers and scream at some people. But I know that's not the way to deal with this. Instead, I'll write this blog post, I'll send more crazy emails to councilors and I will send a letter to the editor. I'll attend the next meeting and I will make sure I'm at the public hearing. PLEASE do the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment