I was revisiting one of my posts and I came across a comment that deserves repetition in light of our current and yet unsolved budgetary crisis. Though this post is about a “Y”, much of its criticism is worth reviewing:
Why does Brattleboro instead nickel and dime our tourists and shoppers at the parking meters, fix $65,000 ice machines to make a skate rink when we live in VERMONT, New England, and could have an outdoor rink that would also attract winter visitors, why does this town build gyms for 14 MILLION dollar police and fire stations with a few dozen employees rather than invest in a “Y” for ALL the (taxpaying) residents? Spend, spend, spend – is all they seem to know downtown – as though there is some endless supply – as the people who live here into letting their homes go unpainted and repaired. The only well paid workers are teachers – and, voila! – there is the super school budget to loop those tax dollars back around. Are the schools the only employer in town these days? Well, kinda yah. This place isn’t going downhill because of the people who live in it – it’s because of the lack of leadership and oversight of the dollars downtown. I suppose the school budget depends on sports in order to threaten removing them so they can get more dollars for the school every time we turn around. Even the state has begun looking at that – thank God/dess. Now that they contribute they have a little more interest in what the heck is going on. A “Y” would threaten those sports programs, because who would have to fund them then if we had a “Y”. They always threaten to cut sports programs when they want
money. This is a game – and it isn’t a fair one.
Brattleboro needs a “Y” – FOR EVERYONE and for lots of reasons. Not another cruiser, fire SUV or parking meter maid. In the meantime, we also need a sane location for a little boys skate park that doesn’t hack up a beautiful location that everyone now uses. What has been built for the little girls of Brattleboro lately? Do only
little boys, Police and Firemen live here? Keep thinking – it will take you quite a while to come up with anything.
Thanks to chrishh
YMCA
I cannot comment on the bulk of your message, but I would like to edify you on the “Y”.
Several years ago, people in this community were contacted by Meeting Waters Y to see if we could get a Y here in Brattleboro
I’ll cut to the chase. If you want to know what happened, I would suggest you watch the musical “The Music Man”.
Several of locals donated money to the project only to see it go up in smoke, along with our money. Meeting Waters appeared to have balanced their budget with our money.
Bob Fagelson