Ballot Question #4

Here is a link to the election ballot.

Make your vote count!

Longmeadow High School Feasibility Study

On Tuesday, October 28th and Tuesday, November 4th, the voters of Longmeadow have an opportunity to responsibly plan for the future of our children and our town. This can only happen with a vote of YES on Articles 6 & 7 at Town Meeting and Question #4 on the election ballot to authorize a Feasibility Study to investigate renovation or new construction at the high school. I urge you to join me in voting yes for the following reasons:

1) The high school desperately needs to be renovated or rebuilt. As anyone who attended or watched the recent building tours or forums with the School Building Committee knows, the building does not help promote student learning. Our students are learning in spite of the building and thanks to their hard work and the dedication of the high school teachers. The town’s students and teachers deserve a building that facilitates their intellectual engagement and does not serve as a distraction.

2) This project demonstrates responsible stewardship of town resources. As our largest town owned building, upkeep of the high school is the responsibility of every adult resident in Longmeadow. In order to make a truly informed decision on the fate of the high school, we must complete this comprehensive Feasibility Study. Without it, we cannot proceed responsibly.

3) This is the only way we can receive state aid to help pay for the project. The state has committed $2.5 billion over five years to support school building projects. Thanks to the hard work of our town leaders, Longmeadow was one of only 49 schools (15 high schools) out of 423 submissions chosen by the state to proceed with the state funding process. If we fail to support the Feasibility Study, it is doubtful that we will become eligible for state funding for the high school in the near future.

4) The financial impact is minimal. We are voting to fund a $750,000 study which will cost the average Longmeadow taxpayer (home value of $370,000) $30 per year for five years (total of $150). This is an excellent investment in the future of the town. The Feasibility Study will both provide us with the information necessary to make an informed decision on renovation versus new construction and enable us to obtain millions of dollars in aid from the state once we make the decision. We need to take this first step in order to proceed further with the state.

5) This project will help keep Longmeadow an attractive place to live and work. Longmeadow’s outstanding reputation in the region is due, in part, to our long-standing commitment to high quality public education. Passage of funding for the Feasibility Study will continue this positive tradition and send a strong signal to families looking to move into the area and teachers looking for the best employment opportunities that Longmeadow is committed to quality facilities and the long term improvement of our high school.

In closing, I hope you will join me in supporting the future of our town; vote YES on Articles 6 & 7 and Question #4.

Ballot Question #1 State Income Tax Repeal

TV Interviews with both sides online now at "Put Up Your Duqs!"

Longmeadow High School Facilities Tour

If you are not able to attend one of the remaining LHS facility tours (see schedule), please take 15 minutes to view the video below that was recently made through the efforts of the LCTV team. It spotlights some of the problems at Longmeadow High School and hopefully will be useful for town residents to become more informed about this important issue facing our town.

Longmeadow HS Facilities Tour
(click link to view video using your favorite viewer)

Vote No on Question 1

Take the time to read the four questions for the upcoming election day ballot on November 4. A number of posters to the LongmeadowBuzz blog have urged voters to vote NO on Question 1.

A YES vote on Question #1 would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for the tax year beginning on January 1, 2009 and would eliminate the tax for all years beginning after January 1, 2010. A NO vote would make no change in state income tax laws.

Given today's financial uncertainties, a YES vote on Question #1 might seem to be attractive to some people but the impact on cities and towns would be devastating. A group called "The Coalition for our Communities" has generated some numbers to help voters assess the financial impact and the results are shown below:

Here is a link to "The Coalition for our Communities" website which provides more information including the methodology used to generate the numbers.

In order to avoid major financial chaos for Massachusetts cities and towns, please vote NO on Question 1.

Question #1 Impact on Libraries

Question 1 on the November 4th ballot, if passed, would eliminate the state income tax. Visit the Coalition for Our Communities to see the estimated state aid cuts for Massachusetts cities and towns.

According to a Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ recent news release , the impact on libraries would be severe. Effects include the elimination of funding for automated networks, which allow borrowing of materials from other libraries, elimination of State Aid to Public Libraries in place since 1890, loss of all electronic resources currently funded by the state and the Regional Library Systems and much more. Commissioner Em Claire Knowles stated, “At a time when we are seeing library use surge, the repeal of the state income tax, would take us back to the library of 1890 and really hurt our residents.”

Financial matters on our minds

Confused about financial terms in the news? Eager to have reliable background information on the stock market, hedge funds, investment banks, commercial banks or the Federal Reserve? Visit the library and consult Gale's 2008 Everyday Finance. It is on display, together with several other up-to-date reference books on money matters.

The library subscribes to the print editions of the Value Line Investment Report, the Value Line Small and Mid-Cap Report and The Morningstar Report. As a subscriber to The Morningstar Report, the library provides in-house access to Morningstar Mutual Funds Online at each of the seven internet stations in the Adult Department. Users should consult the folder on the desktop labeled Morningstar Online to obtain username and password. Morningstar Mutual Funds Online is a PDF report service and all reports may be saved to a disk. Each month, updated full page reports appear on the website two weeks before the print issue arrives. Special reports are issued each quarter. Topics covered recently include Model Portfolios for Retirees and the Best Funds for Income.

In these uncertain economic times, these valuable resources, supported by tax dollars, are available to all

Important Voter Info on Question #1

The LCTV talkshow "Put Up Your Duqs" will have an in depth interview with a representative of the Committee for Small Government, which is pushing for the repeal of the state income tax in Massachusetts.

The one hour interview IS NOW ONLNE at www.JeroldDuquette.organd will air on LCTV Channel 12 starting Monday, October 13th at 6pm.

Leonard Cooperman, representing the Committee on Small Government, provided a thoughtful, if debatable, rational for the ballot measure.

An interview with opponents of the income tax repeal measure will be appearing on the show in the next couple of weeks. More information will be distributed on that interview as soon as it is "in the can," so to speak.

Become informed about the LHS Building Project

The Longmeadow School Building Committee is committed to providing the residents of our town with the information about LHS to make an informed decision. All residents are cordially invited to attend a tour and or public forum about the high school. Please read below:

This your opportunity to LISTEN, LEARN and ASK QUESTIONS! So please join the School Building Committee at one or more of these events! Now is the time to get involved!

The School Building Committee is committed to educating our Longmeadow Residents about the High School Building Project. In order to be an informed voter at the Town Meeting and on Election Day, the School Building Committee is asking for residents to attend one (if not both) of the following activities:

Tour the High School; See first hand the learning environment our children experience everyday.

When: October 18th
Two tours are scheduled/11:30am and 3:00pm

Where: Tours will begin at the front entrance of the school

How Long: Tours will last about 1 hour followed by a 30 minute gathering to answer questions.

Attend a Public Forum; Listen to members of the Building Committee discuss the project and ask them questions.

When: October 14th at 9:00am OR October 22nd at 7:00pm

Where: The October 14th Public Forum will take place in the High School Auditorium
The October 22nd Public Forum will be held in the Business/Technology Center (BTC) at the High School. (Directions to the BTC will be posted inside the school)

How Long: Each forum will consist of a 20 minute presentation followed by a 40 minute public discussion

Why is the School Building Committee scheduling these activities:

Fall town meeting will be held on October 28th at 7:00pm in the High School Auditorium.

This is a VERY IMPORTANT meeting for all residents who are concerned about the condition and future of the High School. There will be a warrant article to appropriate the funds needed to begin the study of a long term solution for the high school building.

If the warrant article passes at Town Meeting then we must turn our attention to November 4th. On the ballot there will be a debt exclusion question to raise the funds needed for the high school study. So please note that if the warrant passes at Town Meeting that does not mean we have the funds, it only means that we may use the funds if they are approved on November 4th.

If the warrant article fails at Town Meeting then the November ballot question is null and void and we do not have the choice to raise funds on that date. The Select Board will need to decide if they wish to hold a special town meeting and special election to raise the high school funding option to the town again. This second go around is not guaranteed and costs the tax payers money.

We simply cannot let this unique opportunity pass us by. If so, we will be giving up potentially millions of dollars in state reimbursement. Now is the time to get involved!

Something to Consider

As Longmeadow moves forward on the path toward the construction of a new high school, the newly formed Longmeadow School Building Committee should consider our new high school project being included in the Massachusetts School Building Authority's Model Schools Program.

This program considers use of existing designs in order to reduce the overall cost. According to a recent article in the Boston Globe the town of Norwood, MA which is ahead of Longmeadow with the new HS building process is considering this option. With this new program the state also provides financial incentives for towns involved to reduce the financial impact.

The picture above shows Whitman-Hanson High School in Whitman, MA built in 2005 which currently accommodates 1,250 students in grades 9 through 12 and is projected to meet the district’s needs for 50 years. The 232,000-square-foot school cost $49.2 million.

According to an article in the Patriot Ledger.... "the school is also a pilot project for the Massachusetts Green Initiative, a partnership between the School Building Authority and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Natural light reduces consumption of electricity. The building is well insulated and has a 51-kilowatt solar electric array on the roof. A 20,000-gallon underground tank collects storm runoff from the roof; the water is used to flush the school’s toilets."

Perhaps, we might not end up with a "unique" building structure but the financial impact on our town might be significantly reduced.