I went to the Five Town CSD School Board meeting last night along with 30 or so other  exhausted taxpayers wondering what the Board was going to say about the $7.3 million it wants and how would it translate to the tax bill I get.

Imagine my surprise to find that my measly property tax increase in Hope of 16% was topped by Camden’s 42% increase IN ONE YEAR.

I think the Board was a bit stunned that all of us showed up and that none of us was in the least sympathetic with the notion of spending $2.6 million dollars on a fake turf field and lights so children can play sports at night.

As one person said, 'why don’t you just put up lights?'  

The fake turf idea carries with it significant longterm health risks not only to people playing on it, but also to the wetlands that it is adjacent to.  You should Google artificial turf and PFAS (Forever chemicals).  It’s a nightmare. Fake turf fields are being banned all over the world but other schools in Maine have them so we should.

More disturbingly, the board seems to have radically changed its opinion from six months ago about the health risk; now they think it’s perfectly OK.  Why? Because they have been assured by the manufacturer that the NEW turf is PFAS free.  

But, as another woman pointed out, those companies may have tested for three or four of the chemicals but what about the other thousand or so? This has the potential to become another expensive boondoggle.

We also learned that the geo-thermal HVAC system, which was proposed by children and pushed through because it was “sustainable” when the school was built, has been failing and being fixed for 20 years all while working at diminishing capacity.  

The Board praised the maintenance staff for fixing this thing and helping it limp along for all this time, but it apparently never occurred to them to put aside money to replace it since it was clearly on borrowed time.  Price tag: $2.5 million.

These must be the same people who thought the windmill was a good idea which is probably going to turn into a really expensive lawn ornament. For the complete story see The story of a windmill .

We learned this enormous school building with who knows how many windows has a “design flaw” (which was not explained). All of the siding and 40% of the windows need replacing because of rotting sills due to faulty flashing. Yes, contractors and architects were sued. No, they didn’t put away money for this job.  Price tag $3.14 million

It seems like the school district is a petri dish for expensive notions.  People jump on board the “sustainability” wagon, taxpayers are forced to comply, and when it all comes crashing down who is holding the bag?  It sets a poor example for children.

I don’t believe the School Board is EVER turned down for anything, and they were unprepared for our vociferous objections.  

As an example, it appeared they did not consider uncoupling the referendums.Separating Maintenance Issues from the Turf War and asking for two sums of money.  

Opinion: Taxpayers might be willing to foot the bill for a couple of expensive but necessary boondoggles but really aren’t in the mood for keeping up with the Joneses, which is partly what the Turf thing is all about. That’s tone deaf.

The consensus from the meeting was it should be uncoupled. And if the referendum on January 14 is defeated, that’s what they will have to do.

With regard to the athletic fields, I’m still confused because it all seems so illogical. They keep saying they don’t have enough fields and have been trying to buy a new field or expand capacity.  I believe them. Due diligence has been done.  However. There is a practice field and then an access road was built right next to it cutting down the size of that field.  

They plan to put up a building on that field to house a handful of alternative school students because the basement room(s) they are in do not have windows. So, one less field.  

If they are going to separate these kids, it seems like maybe there might be room for them in one of the other buildings the District owns, like the beautiful one we were sitting in last night! 

It was pointed out that the capital reserve fund should be at least 10% of the value of the school itself. CHRHS is valued at around $100 million. Nobody on the Board could tell us what was in the capital reserve fund exactly, but it isn’t close to that.  

The debt service on the bond they are requesting is going to add over $600,000 a year to the school budget. Let’s do some math.  Let’s say they had put away $500,000 a year in capital reserve when the geothermal issue reared its ugly head 20 years ago.  They’d have $10 million dollars saved by now and no need to tap the taxpayer.   

Let’s just say no this time.

Laura Richardson lives in Hope