Dear Editor,<\/p>\n
Candor School District residents get to decide on Wednesday whether we want to go another $19.5 million dollars into debt. The District continues to tout the talking point that this $21.5 Million capital project will have \u201cno impact on local taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why? Because they rely on State Aid and have already taken over $2 million of your tax dollars and squirreled them away to help pay for this overly generous project.\u00a0State Aid is still your money!\u00a0It defies logic to continue to insist that a project of this magnitude makes economic sense in a community that decreases in student population from year to year. At the current level of enrollment, this is an expenditure of approximately $26,875 per student.<\/p>\n
Consider only two parts of this project: a major selling point is said to be the purchase of an existing pole barn. The usable life of a pole barn versus a steel building is 20 to 40 years less (Google lifespan of pole barns). Add that the building is already 14 years old, this project \u201csaves the District over $3.5 Million,\u201d but we\u2019ll end up with a building with a lifespan that is 34-54 years less than a new building.<\/p>\n
Are we being led to be penny wise and pound foolish? The Information Technology portion of this program focuses on purchasing iPads and plasma TV\u2019s. Who do you think is going to pay for the replacement of these devices four years from now?\u00a0 You are, yet this project will have \u201cno impact on local taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is lacking in the very short public discussion that precedes this vote is any explanation of why this particular set of individual projects are the best and most cost effective alternatives. In fact, alternatives (if they were considered at all) have not been widely publicized.<\/p>\n
This smacks of a lack of transparency on the part of District officials, and is more akin to a \u201cfree\u201d shopping spree on someone else\u2019s dime – except it IS our dime! Officials have been planning for this since 2007, according to information made public at the informational meeting on Oct. 22. Why have most voters gotten less than three weeks to consider this project?<\/p>\n
Send the school board back to plan a project with \u201cmust have\u201d components that is in keeping with community economics; one that is not so filled with \u201cwant to have\u201d items. I urge you to vote \u201cNO\u201d on Nov. 5.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Steve Barrows<\/p>\n
Candor, N.Y.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Editor, Candor School District residents get to decide on Wednesday whether we want to go another $19.5 million dollars into debt. The District continues…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"yoast_head":"\n