The Issue

What is before Longmeadow voters?

We have 1 issue to decide tomorrow night: whether to accept Commonwealth money earmarked for Longmeadow's High School, or to reject that offer.

Yes or no.

If we vote no, there is not another plan waiting in the wings. We would need to start from square one, and the money the Commonwealth held for us will go back into their general pool for building projects. The LHS would not get repaired; nothing constructive would happen as a result of a no vote.

If we choose YES, however, we benefit in many ways. One way is through the favorable economic climate for such large scale projects. Our interest rate would be at an historic low, and construction bids would likely come in lower than at another time. Evidence from other districts bears this out. Another way is that the timeframe for building would be expedited. Two years--two years without kids in trailers.

The Finance Committee's opinions on this project matter to some degree, since they are the long range planning financial group for Town Meeting. As of this writing, they have not presented Longmeadow with a long range plan, however. Any informal discussion that they may have had regarding other projects is uninformed by a variety of factors: What is the cost for each item? Will we receive grants or other aid from the state or federal government for such projects? There are too many unknowns for the FC to make any valid claim about the future. It is a shame that our FC would waste time discussing that which they have no control over.

Aristotle even classifies deliberation as that which includes practical matters within people’s power (In The Rhetoric, 1359a); there are too many unknowns for them to deliberate about such possible future items. They are inconsequential to the issue before us.

We know the consequences of inaction-voting no. We know the benefits of acting positively with a YES vote. Those concerns, plus our values and interests, are legitimate to consider. I hope Town Meeting decides to keep its eyes on the prize.

Rebecca M. Townsend

You're Not Listening!

Jerold… you’re not listening!

In your last posting on the LongmeadowBuzz, you continued to portray Mr. Gold as an uninformed and misguided town official in an attempt to silence his opposition to the School Building project. Contrary to all of the rhetoric, Mark is well versed about town finances and the school building project. His outstanding leadership and commitment during his one year term on the Select Board resulted in a BALANCED budget that was overwhelming approved at last week’s annual town meeting.

It’s interesting to note that two current Select Board members (Mr. Aseltine and chairman, Mr. Barkett) voted AGAINST the approved budget because they wanted to see more cuts in the town side of the budget. Both are strongly in favor of the High School Building project.

I would urge you (as well as Ms. Swanson and other School Building proponents) to spend more time listening and less time bashing Mr. Gold’s position.

Below is a response by Mark Gold to Ms. Swanson’s recent criticism of his position.

Dear Longmeadow Residents,

Much has been written over the past several weeks about Longmeadow High School and it is appropriate for me, as a candidate for reelection to the Select Board, to offer my position. In the six years I served as chair of the Capital Planning Committee and in this past year as a member of the Select Board, I have come to understand and appreciate the serious deficiencies in our high school physical plant. I believe strongly that improvements – major improvements – need to be done to this facility. My work as a Select Board member in leading the development of this year’s operating budget compromise has also shown me the limits of our financial resources and how much Longmeadow will change if we are unable to maintain the diversity and quality of services that so distinctly characterize this town.

I have carefully and thoughtfully reviewed the high school project proposal that is currently before the residents of the town. It is precisely because I care about the schools, education, and the issues that attract and keep residents in Longmeadow that I have concluded that this project, at this time, is not the right project for addressing the deficiencies of Longmeadow High School. At a cost to the taxpayers of $44.4 million, approval of this project will put a financial burden on the town that will unduly limit our ability to address other critical operating and capital needs we face in the coming years.

It would have been a far more politically expedient position for me to support this project as it is proposed. However, it is because I have given this project so much thought and reviewed it in the context of my service as a member of the Select Board and within the broader needs of our town that I have concluded that this is not the right project at this time. The physical plant needs and other issues at the middle schools are of as equal concern to me as the needs of high school. As I look to those and the other overall needs of our educational system I realize that it is a mistake to focus on one issue without recognition of the other needs that are also within our field of vision. All the needs of the school system should be considered so that we understand the resource limits of the town and properly allocate them so that all the needs can be met over the coming years.

There is pressure to support this project based on a sense of urgency; many feel that state aid will be withdrawn unless we move ahead now. Although project supporters may disagree, I look at the upcoming vote as A decision point, rather than THE decision point in this project. Other than “forum” presentations of options under consideration by the school building committee, this vote is the first chance that the residents of town will have to fully weigh in on the scope and cost of the project. The Center School project went through two voter rejections prior to its acceptance, and we ended up with a better school as a result of this process. I have read and understand the policy of the MSBA and have concluded that this is the wrong project at this time. The state will not turn its back on Longmeadow should we decide that our town needs further deliberation before moving ahead.

Having stated my position on the project, and at the risk of reducing the discussion on the Select Board contest to a secondary referendum on the school project, it is important that Ms. Swanson’s erroneous comments on my response to a constituent’s questions be addressed. Although Ms. Swanson apparently received the entire contents of the e-mail I sent to a private individual in response to their questions, her responses to parsed quotations and selected segments appears to continue a policy of leaving no criticism unanswered and no critic unattacked.

So, item by item my responses are as follows:

click here to read the rest of Mr. Gold’s letter.

Citizens for A Better Longmeadow

is the name of the group led by Roger Wojcik that organized a “public” forum that was attended by an overflow crowd of ~ 65-70 people last night at Storrs Library. The meeting objective as outlined at the outset by Mr. Wojcik was to provide some factual information about the financial issues facing the town both today and into the future. This group believes that many town residents need additional information to make informed decisions at the upcoming town meetings on May 11 and May 25 as well as town elections on June 8. Mr. Wojcik asked attendees to be respectful to each other and not have a repeat of the April 12 forum.

First of all, I applaud Mr. Wojcik’s attempt to provide some factual information about town finances including both the town’s annual operating and capital budgets as well as some of the other current liabilities such as Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). In addition to being a member of the town’s Finance Committee and a past member of the Capital Planning Committee, Mr. Wojcik has useful workplace experience in developing and managing corporate budgets. During the meeting Mr. Wojcik was criticized a number of times by some attendees, particularly about the accuracy of a $35 million OPEB future liability but he pointed to an official town analysis by Scanlon & Associates as his source. Similar objections were voiced about a report on town infrastructure problems and there were attempts by some attendees to discredit this information as well.













Other than one flamboyant outburst by a well-known town resident and regular poster on this blog, the meeting proceeded with a reasonable decorum- far better than the previous forum on April 12 (see my previous post)…. that is, until Mr. Wojcik turned the meeting from an information session into a political debate about Select Board candidates for the upcoming election and the inadvisability of electing former/ current School Committee members to the Select Board. What followed was not unexpected from my vantage point given the makeup of the audience.... the meeting turned into a similar “shouting match” situation as did the April 12 forum and the meeting ended on a very sour note….

Regarding Mr. Duquette’s latest post here on the Buzz blog…

I have listened and attended numerous Select Board/ School Committee meetings as well as official public forums on the current school/town budgets and high school building project during the past 9 months. I believe that I understand the situation quite well and have become very concerned about where we are headed.

Mr. Duquette makes the following statement in his latest Buzz post…

“The library is an operating expense, while the new high school is a capital expense. Closing the library doesn’t do anything to advance the high school project.”

He also states that Mr. Wojcik would have “earned a poor grade in my public budgeting course”. During the meeting Mr. Duquette also restated his recurring theme that “you can’t run public government like a business”.

As Mr. Wojcik tried to explain at last night’s meeting, a capital expenditure turns immediately into an line item operating expense through annual repayment of interest + principal. For the proposed high school project this operating budget line item is likely to be ~ $3.5 – 4.0 million in FY2014 (based upon estimates by Paul Pasterczyk- Town Finance Director but actual numbers are dependent upon municipal bond interest rates). (See my recent post to determine individual property tax impact.)

Mr. Duquette’s approach is similar to many new HS school building advocates who have simply decided to ignore or discount or discredit mention of the any other financial needs of the town and want to simply move forward and build the new high school. They do not want to discuss the financial ability of Longmeadow’s town residents to support such a project.

I believe that we are making a mistake if we simply choose to ignore Longmeadow’s other financial issues as we debate the decision to build a new high school. Given our difficulties in formulating the FY11 budget, it is clear that we will be making additional difficult choices in the very near future… not necessarily ones that we want to make but ones that we are forced to make. These unpopular choices may include reductions in teachers, fire dept/ police dept staff, additional curtailment of library services ……

Our town leaders need to BALANCE available financial resources to deliver both school and town services so that all segments of our town population are treated fairly. With two seats (out of 5) on the Longmeadow Select Board being decided at the June 8 election, it is important for town voters to fully understand each candidate’s position on this issue so that they can make right choices.

Storrs Library- A Resource for All Ages

For some people in Longmeadow... having access to high speed Internet at home is an expensive non-essential "luxury". However, many of the new "social media" like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and others being adopted as standard methods of communication require the use of a recent vintage computer as well as high speed Internet. In today's difficult economic environment, having access to high speed Internet is crucial to finding a new job.

Storrs Library with its state of the art computer technology provides an important resource to many people in our town.

Below is just one example....

Long time resident Ruth Brenner watches
her granddaughter's college piano recital on YouTube

As our town leaders work through this years' budget crisis and are confronted with difficult choices regarding cuts in services.... let them not forget that our town library is a critical resource that we cannot afford to lose. Perhaps, rather than closing our Storrs Library we might consider reducing or eliminating the library services at Longmeadow HS (+ middle schools and elementary schools) and centralize these services at Storrs Library so that all town residents can benefit. Access to library services for high school and other students would likely increase significantly since Storrs Library is open at night and on Saturdays.

In addition, many of the resources for Storrs Library are accessible 24/7 via the Internet. If you haven't visited Storrs Library "on the web", please consider doing so. Here is a link - check it out for yourself and I think that you will be impressed!

Just an idea... thinking outside the box!