Follow the Facts: Heath Center is not now and never has been under threat

Follow the Facts: Heath Center is not now and never has been under threat. 12/29/2020
Save the Center is more of a concept than a reality.  It was invented as a campaign slogan for Bob Bourke’s unsuccessful run for Select Board.  It was intended to imply, without evidence, that his opponent, Brian DeVriese, was somehow against saving the center.
The slogan has also been used to imply that

• The only way to save the center is to get rid of the school.
• Using the former school means abandoning the center.
• Using the former school and saving the center are mutually exclusive.
• Anyone who supports using the former elementary school is against saving the center.
• Keeping and using the former school building will bankrupt the town and push the town’s tax rate over the $25/$1000 levy limit.

There is no evidence that any of these implications are true.
Using the school to meet current challenges has nothing to do, one way or another, with abandoning the center.  It’s not a zero-sum game.  Some of the town’s needs have been well known to us for many years.  Some, like the pandemic and the economic fallout from it, are totally unexpected. The Board is elected to make prudent decisions about the operation of the town based on factual information and real challenges.  They cannot do their jobs on the basis of a divisive and misleading campaign slogan.  First and foremost, they are responsible for the safety of townspeople and our employees.  They have to follow the facts and make their decisions based on the best information they can gather.
 
Using the school is making the best use of a building we own to meet the needs and challenges the town faces.  Not using the school to meet our needs simply means denying ourselves use of a building we own and pay for.  It is throwing money away.
 
Preserving the center and using the former elementary school are not mutually exclusive.  Many people in town are committed to both.  There is benefit to the town in preserving and using both.   In the pandemic, without the former school building, the town would simply not have been able to function safely.  The town, the Select Board, our employees and volunteers have invested tax dollars, grant money and considerable effort in improving and maintaining both.  As a part of the new Heath Building Use Committee, all of the members of the former School Building Use Committee have enthusiastically embraced the Select Board’s charge to promote and use all available buildings for the benefit of the town and to go after opportunities to use them to generate revenue.   
 
Neither abandoning the center, nor getting rid of 18 Jacobs Road will keep Heath’s tax rate from rising.  The things that are pushing up our tax rate are our school costs and the cost of financing Broadband.  Were we to sell either the school or the center buildings we might see a short-term reprieve, but in the long run, the taxes would continue to rise.   Meanwhile, two separate town facilities task forces have shown that the buildings in Heath Center are inadequate to meet our needs now, let alone in the future.  Given this, the only hope Heath has for meeting its building needs is to use the buildings we own.  So far, we have not heard of any affordable alternative. 
 
Finally, no one on our Select Board, neither Brian DeVriese, nor Robyn Provost Carlson, nor Gloria Fisher has ever, in any way, demonstrated by word or action any interest in abandoning the center.  In fact, they have worked diligently to preserve and improve it.  In particular, Brian and Robyn have put in many hours of their considerable building expertise and effort toward preserving and improving it.  At the same time, they have helped the town realize revenue from the former school building and approved and encouraged projects that have brought benefits to the town at minimal cost to taxpayers. 
Here is a list of just some of the building projects of just the past year to eighteen months,

• Green Communities grant money has been used to bring down our energy costs by replacing all the light fixtures at Community Hall, Sawyer Hall, the Highway Garage and town center with LED lighting.
• Many hours and tax dollars were used to address the asbestos in the furnace room at Community Hall, the presence of which could have closed the building.
• Plans for replacing the furnace at Community Hall were scrapped because they turned out to be unworkable.  Instead, the Energy Committee recommended and the Select Board voted to amend the original plan in favor of installing heat pumps.  Amending the plan and finding an engineering firm willing to give the town an estimate for the project has taken considerable time and effort. 
• The insulation project at Community Hall has been put out to bid and the hope is it will go forward as soon as the town is able to award the contract.
• The town is also using tax dollars and a design contributed by Brian DeVriese to install handrails at the entrance to Sawyer Hall.  And we are using tax dollars to shore up structural support of the salt shed.  This was a project the Facilities Task Force flagged as urgent. 
• The Building Manager spent considerable time and effort repairing a broken water line that left Sawyer Hall without drinking water or plumbing for a week in August.
• The Town Coordinator and Building Manager spent hours clearing out the balcony and stage in order to remedy the fire code violations that threatened to close the building.
• The Select Board voted to accept Doug Mason’s generous offer of an internet booster in hopes of being able to use Community Hall as an indoor hot spot for educational and community purposes, but the town’s IT company has refused, in accordance with its contract, to expand free access to the town’s WIFI because it jeopardizes cyber security for the town.
• Meanwhile, the town has amended its original Energy Reduction Plan to include 18 Jacobs Road.  This will allow us to move forward with replacing the light fixtures there with LED lights and utilize future rounds of the Green Communities grant to reduce our use of oil there by installing heat pumps. 
• Because of the threat Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), volunteers took on and completed a project to replace all the screens at the former school, saving the town about $8,000.  This has turned out to have added benefit in terms of improving ventilation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Cares Act money is being used to repair the ventilation system in the classroom portion of the school.  It is fully operational and up to code in the Gym and Cafeteria.  It is the only building in town that has mechanical ventilation. 
• The Board voted to install a state sponsored, free hot spot at the former elementary school.  This gave the town two hot spots.  There was pressure to put the state sponsored hot spot in the town center but that was determined to be redundant.  It would not have significantly increased the strength of the existing hot spot at the town center.  Having the hot spot at 18 Jacobs Road has turned out to be a boon for Heath teachers and students needing in town access to internet for remote learning.
• The Police Chief and Town Coordinator wrote a successful grant to provide 18 Jacobs Road with a generator and radio tower which will enhance the town’s ability to respond to emergencies.
• In response to a citizen’s concern, wood chips were contributed and installed by volunteers at the playground at 18 Jacobs Road.
• In 2019 the school building generated $10,000 in revenue from rentals before the pandemic closed the building.  In 2020, with the rental of a classroom to Tri-wire, the building is so far poised to generate about $7,000.  This is without any effort to market space for rent.

“Save the Center” is a divisive and partisan campaign slogan.  It’s based on fears and fabrications not facts.  Heath Center is not now and never has been under threat.   Some have imagined that keeping and using the school will somehow cause the center to decline, but as Mr. Rogers often said, “You don’t always have to imagine bad things.”    
 
It’s time to stop imagining bad things and acknowledge and build on the many ways our Select Board, employees and neighbors are working hard to preserve and maintain the town we all love.  We need to put all of our assets to work to keep the town and its employees functioning and safe to the best of our abilities. It’s time to focus on facts and pull together to meet the very real and serious challenges we face.  

​ - Pam Porter
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