Letter: All that money, and not a peep?

Apparently, everyone’s so focused on the Trump/Harris mess of an election that they missed the ConVal School Board entertaining the idea of spending $44 million on capital improvements to the high school.

I’ve got to be honest – I had no clue they were even thinking about this, and all of a sudden an architect’s giving a presentation, with white boards, cost estimates and I’m sure a pretty dolled-up PowerPoint presentation. The architectural firm didn’t do this gratis, I can pretty much guarantee that.

How’d we get to this point so quickly? And why? What’s the impetus? Better state funding for the CTE adds? That I can get behind, with more information before I commit. But adding 70% more seats to an auditorium in the face of enrollment declining 20%, at a cost of about $72,000 per seat, $10 million total? And completely locally funded? That’s a resounding no. Don’t even ask the question.

As to the rest? I don’t even know. Better security? Probably. The rest sounded pretty vague, and I’m always a “no” on vague. But, in talking around, not finding many folks care about this apparently. Too worried about what happens if one or the other of the presidential candidates gets elected. One of them will, and your life will mostly be unchanged. But ignore local politics, trusting others to govern responsibly, and things like this will continue to come and bite you in your pocketbook. You’ll have no standing to complain about your property tax bill – your apathy let it happen.

Rick Villaume

Peterborough