M’bourough BOS can’t get mega-cost facility off its mind

To The Daily Sun,

Last Friday I turned in a petition warrant article to the Moultonborough Town Clerk’s Office signed by over 90 registered voters to address a glaring oversight by the Board of Selectmen. Despite numerous inputs from community members for a modest upgrade to the facilities at the Lions Club building on Old Rte. 109, three members of the BOS have ignored those requests. Instead of also including this as an option, the board decided to place two articles on the warrant,  each for a new community center building and attached gym with the Recreation Department vacating its current building and moving to the new facilities. The only distinction between the two warrant articles is the location of the new building and gym.

Oh, one other thing — cost. Vote either for Old Rout e 109 and tearing down the current Lions Club building or vote to place it at the Taylor property on Route 25. So here we go again, yet another mega-cost facility run by the Recreation Department that will be subject to bonding (debt) to be paid back over up to 15 years.

Clearly the recent decision by the BOS, in my opinion and that of more than 90 others, did not reflect the repeated input from the majority in the community. A third option was obviously necessary. Therefore we submitted a petition to place an article on the warrant for Town Meeting to simply renovate the existing Lions Club building and include a new commercial kitchen and expanded ADA bathrooms. This project identified a modest expense of up to $1.5 million as compared to the $5.5-$6.7 million for the new building and gym put forth by the board. Our proposal calls for the use of existing and available funds, no bonding to mortgage the town’s future and no new taxes.

When will this madness that goes back to 2008 (11 years) for expensive new buildings and a gym end? The building and gym proposed for this year’s (2019) warrant is nearly the project that was soundly defeated at Town Meeting in 2016. Let’s hope our citizen’s petition warrant article provides the community the opportunity to finally end this ongoing debate. Registered voters should plan to come to the budget hearing this Thursday (Feb. 7) at 7 p.m. in Town Hall. The board needs to hear yet again that the community does not want another mega project that incurs debt. This hearing is our opportunity to see in detail the proposed operating budget and capital projects to be voted on at Town Meeting.

Jim Morrison

Moultonborough