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Health & Fitness

Save All of Mansfield's Elementary Schools

Renovating all three neighborhood schools is still an option.

The public has a right to know.

Saving all three elementary neighborhood schools remains an option on the table for Mansfield residents.

Trouble is everyone in Mayberry including Aunt Bee, Opie and Sherriff Andy have to put down their “kerosene cucumbers” long enough to show up for Monday’s March 5 Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at the Auditorium to tell the dang Town Council what they think!

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It’s an old fashion hoedown complete with a train about to leave the station headed straight for higher taxes and a bankrupt Town.

The Democratically controlled Town Council recommended two new schools last week. But, the choice is ours.

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The Democrats want two large brand new schools (57,922 square feet per school). So, they can turn one of the three little schools (35,700 square feet per school) into Mansfield’s new police station and holding tank. (Great, isn’t it? Which neighborhood wins that booby prize?)

And, if you don’t think it’s possible, take a gander at the current Town Hall.

Fifty years ago the Town’s leadership pulled the same thing on the unsuspecting Town folks of Mansfield. Told them their little elementary school in the center of Town was inadequate, outdated. It had to go! Well, there it sits as a Town Hall with a roof that doesn’t leak, nifty air conditioning, a working boiler, and guess what? It’s still structurally sound.

It’s Mansfield’s M.O. Find the money somewhere else (Department of Education) to pay for the something else (more Municipal space) with money from the other thing (Schools). And Bingo! You have the thing you desire. In this case, it’s a new municipal building where once a small neighborhood school stood.

Nowhere is it written that Mansfield residents have to accept two new schools. In fact, smart money says to reject it outright. More time, and more energy, and more hot air have been expended trying to breathe life into a concept that was DOA from the start. The numbers simply don’t add up.

Here’s a little math lesson to give the Town Council.

New school construction cost $550 per square foot.

Renovating an existing school cost $350 per square foot.

So?

So, there is $200 per square foot worth of real value in the existing bricks and mortars!

Duh!

And that’s what every homeowner understands, but apparently the Democrats on the Town Council don’t.

Now, add in the fact that these beautiful little schools are small, inviting, create a sense of neighborhood, and are close to home, and you have your answer for the Town Council. No!

This is not rocket science. It’s real estate. Renovating the three schools is viable, and less expensive. That’s right, less expensive and by a whopping $10 million dollars (their numbers, not mine)!

Don’t let them persuade you that building new schools will not impact your property taxes. It will, and by more than the Barney Fifes on the Town Council comprehend. Remember, these are the same goofy, gullible folks who believed Town management when it said, “Let’s add a new floor to the parking garage and put less than 5% in reserves!”  And, what was the result of that boneheaded decision? $1.3 million dollars in cost overruns to the Town of Mansfield with inadequate reserves to cover the shortfall! Oops! My mistake!

So, dust off the old pitchforks, light the torches and give ‘em hell! March to the Mansfield Middle School Monday night and tell them.

Save our neighborhood schools!”

“Renovate don’t obliterate!”

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