- A new waste water treatment plant which will cost $14.1 million. (Read this article and this editorial for more info.) I have more to say about this, but that's another post.
- Development of the MacIntosh well, which will cost approximately $3 million. (Read a recent article here.)
- A new teachers contract, which will actually reduce the school's operating budget by approximately $37,000 in 2013-2014. (The School Board just approved it last night and you can watch the meeting here if you'd like the details.)
- Addressing Fire and Life Safety Issues at the Jr. Sr. High School.
Town Meeting this year will be addressing many of our town's most pressing issues-water, waste water and school facilities.
Of course, a new school won't be on the warrant but it will certainly factor into the discussion. The question remains: do we fix the fire and life safety issues at the current school with a total price tag of about $2 million? For most people the answer depends on whether or not you think we should be building a new school and that's bound to come up in the discussion.
Water isn't the most exciting topic to discuss, but developing the MacIntosh well is important to the health of our community. (I wrote about it here back in May.) And upgrading the waste water treatment plant is an infrastructure issue that we need to deal with because of the EPA mandate and the health of Great Bay.
We will also discuss the teacher's contract, and I can tell you from past experience that it can be painful to sit through. Some of the comments that community members (and budget committee members) make about teachers are unnecessarily inflammatory and not grounded in reality. This is where that saying, "you can be a part of the problem or a part of the solution" comes in.
The public hearing on January 14th is the first opportunity for the community to voice concerns, ask questions and show support. See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment