Dear Editor:

At the Jan. 13, 2020 Boothbay Harbor Selectboard meeting, after several rounds of board and public input, Baker Design Consultants shared a footbridge concept with a whopping $2.8M price tag. On Jan. 12, 2023, at a special town meeting, a $1.2M footbridge project was approved. Today, we have a beautiful, improved, safe footbridge designed to get pedestrian traffic across the harbor. What happened in between those two meetings was quite simple. Public dreams met economic reality and we were able to solve the problem.

On Nov. 7, voters will be asked to spend up to $89M on our local schools. In 2021, school administrators developed a building exploratory committee to gather input from a variety of stakeholders. Like the footbridge project, the ideas were endless because there were no budget limitations. Like the initial footbridge project proposal, the current school building project proposal has lost touch with the problem we are trying to solve. How do we provide the best possible education for our children in a safe environment recognizing that we have school infrastructure needing work?

On Jan. 27, 2021 the Lavallee Brensinger Architects offered an assessment of and proposal for the Boothbay Region Elementary and High School. Note – there is no current Middle School. BRES received a “B” for overall building condition and BRHS a “D.” The price tag to renovate and consolidate both schools was $44-$49M all in.

Two and a half years later, we are faced with (2) referendums that, together, equal double that $44-$49M estimate. While construction costs have and will continue to rise, the scope of this project has dramatically expanded because paid engineers have incorporated stakeholder input without financial constraints.

School administrators want to preserve the structural status quo. Taxpayers deserve to see all options. We need to reject both of these referendums and demand all building upgrades be presented for vote in a detailed manner – no bundling of initiatives. Concurrently, we should explore structural options including regionalization and tuition-out alternatives.

Vote No on Questions 1 and 2 – early voting is available.  

Patty Minerich 

Boothbay Harbor