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Necessity and Wisdom

I encourage your readers to vote “Yes” on Feb. 15. Although I don’t have children, I see the necessity and wisdom of the School Renewal Plan’s investment in updating our schools for security, safety, enrollment, and curriculum needs. Anticipated money from the state and the sale of Island Avenue School will help defray the cost. Our taxes will go up regardless because if the $89 million plan does not pass, $100 million in deferred maintenance will be needed over 10 years for our aging schools without updating them towards the future.

The people of Madison have expressed a desire to keep the historic Academy School. It’s use as a community center will provide the town with immeasurable benefits and bring additional business to our downtown shops and restaurants. State and federal grants will be sought to defray the construction cost.

Madison residents are now traveling to neighboring towns to use other community centers. Repurposing a school is less expensive than building from scratch; Branford and other communities have repurposed schools to create community centers. It is anticipated that the annual revenue will cover the expenses. I hope that the people of Madison will envision the immense enhancement to our quality of life, similar to the purchase of the Surf Club 50 years ago.

As with maintaining a home, a town has continuous needs and there will always be cost and/or debt. Ideally, town management should engage in long-term planning and pace the projects in order to keep the cost/debt at a moderate level and relatively stable over time. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been done in the past. Fortunately, our current administration understands and implements long-term planning. Currently, our debt is relatively low and declining, and interest rates are low, but are soon to rise if we don’t act now.

Susan Glantz

Madison