Chuck McGee: Read negative letters about CruCon purchase carefully

To The Daily Sun, 

How fitting that failed selectboard candidate Mark Borrin labels the proposed CruCon purchase a “boondoggle.” Hardly. Rather than burden the town with $15 million or more of long-term debt for his failed hub project, the town would own CruCon outright immediately. No bonds, no interest payments.

In his previous CruCon letter, he suggests designing a new building rather than buying CruCon. Great idea. Let’s add to the $200,000 the town has already wasted over the last 20 years trying to get something new built. His scare tactics (annual maintenance cost, tax increases, etc) in opposition to CruCon are just sour grapes for not getting the “Borrin Center” across the finish line. He had no problem with a tax increase of 0.23 cents per thousand for that exercise. CruCon operating expenses are peanuts compared to the annual cost of running a swimming pool facility. Expect him back with another proposal if CruCon fails ― and it’ll be for far more than the $3.8 million for CruCon.

Another failed selectboard candidate, George Mottram, accuses the current selectboard of not maintaining Town Hall. A cheap shot and not true. We’ve just outgrown it. Purchasing CruCon is a less-expensive option to building a new facility or doing a costly remodel. It will actually cut costs by combining three buildings into one. Rather than taking two to three years to build something new, CruCon is ready to go now.

Read the negative CruCon letters carefully. Opposition is ego driven. There’s no good reason not to buy it ― and not doing so will cost us a lot more down the road. CruCon is a fiscally-responsible project. Next time the community center crowd comes at you for $15-$20 million for their next boondoggle, remember: taxpayers could have had CruCon for under $5 million. The choice is theirs.

Chuck McGee

Moultonborough