Community Center: February 2008 Archives
February 20, 2008
Editor, The Citizen:
I have to respond to the letter to the editor from John St. Amand in Monday's Citizen. I personally resent the statement that there has been opposition to the community center from a "few vocal people". How many is a few? We will never know unless it is put to a ballot box vote, where all voices can be heard.
Will the proponents of the community center please for once try to understand what the "opposition" is truly saying. We are not saying we don't need or want a community center. We are not opposed to projects that better our community. We simply want a more thoughtful, inclusive process with clear costs and impact to our tax rate. We are concerned about the extreme haste to get this project approved at all cost before we even complete a master plan for Moultonborough. I also have to add that not all in our town are as well off as Mr. St. Amand and I hope that our fellow townspeople recognize that fact when voting to increase our property taxes.
Paul Punturieri
Moultonboro
| July 12, 2007 To the Editor: How many is "many, many?" That is the question I asked of the Moultonboro Recreation Strategic Planning Committee while attending the listening session on June 28. They use the term "many, many" to tell us what people have said they want in a new Community Center. My question asked for a quantitative answer – is it three or 30 or 300? The committee will not put a number on it – not even an estimate. Also when I asked how much the center will cost I was told I was ahead of the curve and that they don't know the cost. I can assure you it will cost "many, many" millions of dollars. How can anyone make an intelligent decision about a project if they do not know the cost? This project will affect all Moultonboro taxpayers. The questions we should all be asking are: - How much are the up front costs? - How much will it cost to run on a yearly basis? - How much will this project affect my annual taxes? Jim Morrison Moultonboro |
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| October 18, 2007 To the Editor: Did the Moultonboro Master Plan Survey reflect a desire for a multi-million dollar community center? Did the citizens request a community center at all? Is this a need for our community or a want of a few? Read on: The 2006 Town Report, page 11, has comments by the town administrator about the Master Plan Survey. "Among the many issues identified in the survey, six stood out as being the most important: protecting our lakes and stream; protecting our drinking water; property taxes; preserving educational quality; protecting open spaces and traffic (presented in their approximate order of importance)." Nowhere in those six top items is there a request for a community center or a recreational center, nor did he mention it anyplace on page 11. However, the Recreation Strategic Planning Committee seems to give the impression that they are complying with the Master Plan Survey. | |||
