Mr. Iacaponi has sent along the latest Capital Improvement Plan. You can find revision 8 here.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Latest capital improvement plan
Posted by
Bill Trimble
at
1:25 PM
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Budget,
Capital projects
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28 comments:
Well, well, well...The CIp certianly picks pet projects and disregards the important little or big stuff. Take for instance the poor library parking lot. We can spend almost $200,000 on a street sweeper but we can't repair library lot (but we repaired police lot). The kids' gang bathrooms (where handwashing hygiene is most important to avoid sick days) have been put back another 4 years, how great for our youngest. I say to put off these school building upgrades is near criminal and we need a debt exclusion ASAP. Dismissing the library air qulaity control system is bogus too. Do you know how many citizens use that building, and after the recent fire some public had to avoid the library for 2 months because the air was so bad and no one could get it controlled or circulated correctly. I have no faith in the CIP Comittee due to the list of put off across the board needs (unless of couse we need trucks), how long have these people served eeons? Any data on CIP members BIll? How many women on this Committee?????????
I agree, there seems to be heavy politics behind these decisions and as of now Iacaponi is juggling his job (which he needs to retire from) and that of Gagne's? No wonder our community is a farce. I think this place has turned into a Florida for the retired with no kids. Sad sad sad. And don't tell me you act this way to keep it affordable for the next kids. Hog crap.
Maybe Ms. Stone will address the school CIP since the SB and school administrators do a half-butt job. Lara will you or Diane address the school CIP, our poor children--it is like out of an orphanage. Our schools are like inner city dumps.
What sayeth you Bill, how will you help fund the school CIP?
Library CIP?
Something besides man machinery? What about the roofs, will they all collapse...Gosh darn, get to it!
The school CIP was boilers, middle school improvements then video system. the only item that stood any chance of approval was the boilers due to the "payback" . They also put a hold on all ADA items. guess there's no "payback" in accessibility
Some good advice from the still-master, don't post on internet blogs when you have been sippin' the recipe.
I'd like to see us replace the student lockers at the old high school. Those things are ancient, broken, and need to get tossed.
By the looks of all the half page $tone ads in the S-Times, I think you people should be able to replace the lockers yourselves! Cry about it... but it appears that you have the money, so just do it!
Lockers are NOT a priority for my children. Reading and Math are a priority!
Thats right there you have it. Parents pay for it yourselves.Just like the extra curricular , busing,sports, music, field trips, PTO donations, Boy if i didnt know better dartmouth doesnt support education.
The elementary bathrooms were supposed to be upgraded this year. Parents of youngsters have already waited 5 years, now it is pushed back another three or four years. this is a disgrace. Bathrooms are more important than lockers. This town doesn't care about small kids, it isn't all about energy savings. Maybe the water bill will go down with sink upgrades. I agree illness and absenteeism is a problem in the elementary, probably Middle too.
If you can afford all your CFRg stuff and Bugs Bunny outfit, you can afford some labor in the schools, painting corridors. Fixing broken closet doors?
Who WAS that in the Bugs Bunny suit, holding up a Gilbert sign?
Could it have been Lara?
Maybe even SHE doesn't believe in herself.
The town is required by the state to have a certain number of street sweepers based upon the roads we have. For Dartmouth that number is two. We now have two but one is in bad shape. We must replace it or we could lose millions in Chapter 90 road maintenance funding.
The library HVAC system is undergoing an engineering evaluation to determine the best way to upgrade it.
Parents pay for their children to go to music lessons, pay soccer and baseball, and then when they reach high school, it's suddenly a huge burden to pay fees. Get real. Nobody buys the "Dartmouth hates kids" stuff either. How many times do you have to be told NO? Stone, Olympio, and crowd STILL don't get it. You can't hen-peck the town into an override, NOT GONNA HAPPEN!
You don't support the town buildings and habitats for humanity? C'mon, scrooge it is spring. Do you own a boat, or golf, or have a house worth more than $500,000? Or a gas guzzling truck, you can afford $99 for CIP...Thanks Bill for the info on the library and the street sweeper, what about the library lot? Bill have you toured the school buildings crack by crack, will you?
Communities pay for public education and the maintenance of the buildings and provide the learning environment. We need to share this burden, it is part of taxes. why should families be double or triple taxed. People already fundraise for programs and for classroom and school library books. And for playgrounds. At some point the responsible party is society. Now if we had fancy pants schools fine complain and gripe, but we don't even have normally taken care of ones.
They're your kids for chrissakes! Take a little responsibility for them yourself. It might teach them a valuable lesson in self reliance. You read to them , take them to the gallery and museum. The rest of us don't owe you anything. You had kids and you have to provide for and raise them. A public education was never meant to get them into the Ivy League and the rest of us aren't paying for that. The wonderful school system you lament has always spent less than the state average. They used to get better results. Look to Dr. Russell about that, not the taxpayer.
No anon 3:52, I look to the taxpayer to provide for a good, decent education in buildings that do not leak, are well maintained and have the necessities to provide kids with an education that makes them able to compete in the 21st century. It has little to do with Yale, or Harvard but it is a convenient class card to throw in so feel free. Dartmouth has become parsimonious as far as providing for the basics for the children in their community. Witness the selfish and often nasty comments on this blog for any evidence one needs.As a previous poster said nobody is expecting Wellesley or Concord level amenities - although those communities gladly provide them with none of the sniping that we hear in this community. Its a very sad commentary when we continiulaly hear comments that tell parents to take care of their own kids. Such comments presuppose parents are already not doing that very thing.
Wellesley and Concord?
I would expect they would "gladly provide." Bigger $$$$$$$ there.
What you call "sniping" may be someone living very frugally just to live.
Most of you CFRG'ers or Trimble bloggers aren't destitute, so stop the poor me it is not my responsibility to pay a buck for the next generation speech.
You guys sound so small, maybe you never have left Dartmouth to see the big world. Everything isn't like Dartmouth. Hey my kids may want to work in Boston, Detroit, Delaware, San Fran, or Denmark. They should have intellectual preparedness and the chance. PS I hear that it is a myth that dartmouth schools used to be excellent, they were overcrowded and falling apart then too! II've heard this from local grads. So stop with the praise for the past. We are focused on the now, the 21st Century, competing with workforce from China!
Cut the bull. We have a practically brand new high school and until a few months ago, the school buildings were fine. Then you school whiners decided they were falling down and now that's all I hear from you. You school whiners are a small and very noisy minority. Most of us realize that tax increases are permanent and school days are not. If you want your kid to compete in the 21st century, make sure that they value education and love learning. Turn off the TV, take away the video games and computer. Teach them to think. You can do that, the school can't.
Classic Dartmouth response. You don't have to read the Standard Times article on why this region lags in virtually every survey of educational levels and leads in highest unemployment rates. The evidence is presented on this blog hourly. Keep up the good work!
Anon you been to any of the buildings? I mean recently not 40 years ago when you may have attended them. I have an idea make like they're a DPW garage and inside are some sanders not kids. We wont let those leak now will we, can't subject the trucks to those sorts of conditions. Think about it, we're putting up a new garage this year to protect the vehicles from the elements and you're upset because the school buildins need to be maintained.
Maybe you're barking at the wrong person. Have you approached Dave Hickox and told him what you think? Have you told anyone in town government? I don't imagine many, if any, of the posters here can help you. Have you approached Dr. Russell?
I don't know too well the financial policy behind how decisions on what to spend on are made, but at least asking people directly involved might give you some answers and give you the opportunity to let them hear and know your frustration and anger.
Why, for example, weren't books and technology for the kids addressed long before this, and we're still waiting? I should think someone in the schools should have had the foresight to plan for new texts/technology maybe a little better than was done.
But that's just my opinion, and, again, I don't know the procedure. It just makes sense to me, at least, that you anticipate future needs and budget for them. Maybe that's too simplistic, though.
For what it's worth, I understand your frustration and can appreciate it.
Yep only here in Dartmouth are we more concerned about trucks getting wet than school's buildings and the accessibility of the disabled.
Forgot to mention, ask Manny Cordeiro, too.
Education and environment for education matter.
To 3/28 6:58 If it is true that Dartmouth schools were not excellent and local grads were not well prepared, then I am really confused. My understanding is that before the last few years, the schools received more than MNSS. In fact in some years quite a bit more. So if there was additional money, how come the schools weren't excellent? That is the argument isn't it? If we had more money, the schools would be great. My understanding is also that many of Dartmouth's past grads went on to highly respected colleges and have done quite well. But you are saying that even though we were spending more than MNSS, our students still didn't do well. Please clarify.
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