Can we really afford a community center?
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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. | |||
On Oct. 25 there will be a selectmen's meeting and RSPC will introduce to the citizens of Moultonboro the proposed recreation/community center for the Lions Club property.
That parcel was purchased by the town in 2007 for $495,000; the center currently could cost about $7.5 million including a proposed swimming pool. The pool is tentatively projected at a cost of $2.2 to $2.3 million and the projected annual pool operating cost would be over $250,000 per year. In addition to the initial cost, user fees are being considered.
I don't have their projected annual operating cost for the center but for reference the Meredith News reported the Meredith Community Center projected their annual operating cost at $157,378; their building is smaller than the currently proposed center and they do not have a pool.
The RSPC has been meeting since November 2004. The Moultonboro Citizens Alliance had to invoke the Right-to-Know Law in order for the RSPC minutes to be made available to the public.
The meeting minutes are now available, back to 2004, on the town Web site www.mountonborough.org. Click on Recreation Department and then select Strategic Planning Minutes (Notes) and browse them.
They make interesting reading: for instance, the Sept. 12, 2007 minutes state "the issue is not if we will have a pool, but when. Should it be in phase 1 with the community center or in a later year?"
Here are some upcoming costs that Moultonboro residents should be concerned about:
Many are projecting that Moultonboro could again become a donor town.
We are faced with a potential $1 million road rebuilding cost for Ossipee Park Road past the water bottling plant.
The landfill expansion building could cost about $1 million.
NH bridges need maintenance and could mean increased tolls, gas tax or property tax.
The state pension fund for state and municipal employees is under-funded by $2.5 billion and the deficit is growing. This will certainly place additional demand on taxpayers.
Do you want to take on a multi-million dollar community center and its ongoing annual operating cost in these uncertain times?
What is the rush? Many property owners could be financially strapped and some forced to sell.
Remember, concern over property taxes was third in the top priority list of the Master Plan Survey as noted, by the town administrator, in paragraph two above.
We don't know why a quick decision on the center is needed. MCA is not against a community center, if that is what the citizens decide. What happened to the 10-year lease with the Lions Club? The townspeople were led to believe, at the town meeting session, that a possible building could be constructed during the lease and it was surmised by many that it would probably be in about six or seven years.
Some of the Lions Club land is wetlands, which was not made clear at the 2007 town meeting.
Perhaps the Lion's Club land should be used for something else. Why the rush to build a recreation or community center?
Please attend this most important meeting on Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., at the Moultonboro Academy Auditorium.
Moultonboro Citizens Alliance is a nonprofit alliance of citizens.
You may write to us at PO Box 678, Moultonboro, NH 03254 or email us at moultonborocitizensalliance@yahoo.com.
Jim Leiterman
Moultonboro Citizens Alliance
That parcel was purchased by the town in 2007 for $495,000; the center currently could cost about $7.5 million including a proposed swimming pool. The pool is tentatively projected at a cost of $2.2 to $2.3 million and the projected annual pool operating cost would be over $250,000 per year. In addition to the initial cost, user fees are being considered.
I don't have their projected annual operating cost for the center but for reference the Meredith News reported the Meredith Community Center projected their annual operating cost at $157,378; their building is smaller than the currently proposed center and they do not have a pool.
The RSPC has been meeting since November 2004. The Moultonboro Citizens Alliance had to invoke the Right-to-Know Law in order for the RSPC minutes to be made available to the public.
The meeting minutes are now available, back to 2004, on the town Web site www.mountonborough.org. Click on Recreation Department and then select Strategic Planning Minutes (Notes) and browse them.
They make interesting reading: for instance, the Sept. 12, 2007 minutes state "the issue is not if we will have a pool, but when. Should it be in phase 1 with the community center or in a later year?"
Here are some upcoming costs that Moultonboro residents should be concerned about:
Many are projecting that Moultonboro could again become a donor town.
We are faced with a potential $1 million road rebuilding cost for Ossipee Park Road past the water bottling plant.
The landfill expansion building could cost about $1 million.
NH bridges need maintenance and could mean increased tolls, gas tax or property tax.
The state pension fund for state and municipal employees is under-funded by $2.5 billion and the deficit is growing. This will certainly place additional demand on taxpayers.
Do you want to take on a multi-million dollar community center and its ongoing annual operating cost in these uncertain times?
What is the rush? Many property owners could be financially strapped and some forced to sell.
Remember, concern over property taxes was third in the top priority list of the Master Plan Survey as noted, by the town administrator, in paragraph two above.
We don't know why a quick decision on the center is needed. MCA is not against a community center, if that is what the citizens decide. What happened to the 10-year lease with the Lions Club? The townspeople were led to believe, at the town meeting session, that a possible building could be constructed during the lease and it was surmised by many that it would probably be in about six or seven years.
Some of the Lions Club land is wetlands, which was not made clear at the 2007 town meeting.
Perhaps the Lion's Club land should be used for something else. Why the rush to build a recreation or community center?
Please attend this most important meeting on Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., at the Moultonboro Academy Auditorium.
Moultonboro Citizens Alliance is a nonprofit alliance of citizens.
You may write to us at PO Box 678, Moultonboro, NH 03254 or email us at moultonborocitizensalliance@yahoo.com.
Jim Leiterman
Moultonboro Citizens Alliance
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