Bill Klemme

To the editor,

In his letter to the Laconia Daily Sun published on Monday March 16, David St. Cyr made some comments which I believe need to be responded to. Especially since I am one of those 473 Alton residents who voted other than he would have liked, and who also wrote a letter to the Baysider opposing the spending of money at this critical time in our economy.

Mr. St. Cyr seems to believe that the existing school is in such terrible shape that “the facilities at ACS will continue to deteriorate”. Why should that have to be the case?

There is such a thing as maintenance. The answer is not always to build new. We lived for 30 years in a house that was 250 years old, and of course it needed fixing, but never once did I consider tearing it down and building a new house in its place. And what homeowner DOES consider that as an option? We keep fixing up what we’ve got because it just makes financial sense.

His statement regarding the “deteriorating facilities” is also revealing. It implies that there should be a NEW facility rather than a maintained one. He is angry about the Twombly property purchase being turned down because THAT would have solved the situation at ACS. Not by fixing the EXISTING facility. Wait a minute! When the School District was promoting this deal in their public forums and newspaper articles, we were being told that this property was only to be used as an extension of the fields at ACS, and would also be great for general town use. No mention of ever building a replacement school on it. Do they know something we don’t?

His comment about an entrance to the property is also a bit strange. He says “…in fact, about a $30 can of white line paint will be enough to layout and make safe … any entrance on to property.” If this were true why didn’t somebody say it earlier? Prior to voting day the School District’s answer to the question “How much will it cost us to put in a proper entrance off of Rt. 28?” was “We don’t know. We need part of this $500,000 to pay for a cost analysis.” They should have told us that Mr. St. Cyr had the answer all along.

Okay, I’m being a tad sarcastic there, and yes I guess I understand him being angry that he spent three or more years on a project that got rejected, but maybe he ought to have a look at why it got rejected. He says, (referring to the parents of ACS students), “The voters who stood to gain the most….now have the most to loose (sic).” Those parents whom you assume didn’t show up may be the very ones who DID show up and voted against what you wanted. They pay taxes too, and just maybe they didn’t think their kids were faring so badly after all. If Alton schoolchildren were getting a poor education I’d be willing to bet their parents would be the first ones down there making a fuss and looking for answers.

It’s quite possible that Mr. St. Cyr is wrong about who wants property for a new school and who doesn’t. It’s quite possible that mostly school teachers and school administrators, and contractors and people selling property, are the ones interested in our town spending more money.

Bill Klemme

Alton Bay