Fredonia project due to lack of action

Editor, OBSERVER:

After having read the OBSERVER’s View article (Dec. 7-8) covering the upcoming vote on Fredonia’s capital project, I felt the need to respond to shed light on several items the article conveniently didn’t mention.

First, the idea of sharing Forestville’s auditorium completely misses the point on much of the improvements that will take place should proposition 2 pass. While Forestville’s auditorium is without question a first class facility, I’m not sure how sharing that venue addresses the need for larger instruction space.

Is the OBSERVER suggesting Fredonia starts bussing their kids to Forestville for band practice, chorus and instrument lessons? Not to mention Forestville’s facility is smaller than Fredonia’s, and Fredonia’s is almost always a packed house when it comes to concerts and school musicals.

In terms of sharing sports facilities, it is true that both Fredonia State and Dunkirk have been gracious in allowing Fredonia to use their facilities for soccer, but on game days only. Both our football and soccer teams are continually forced to practice, day in and out, on fields whose deplorable, very often unsafe, conditions have been very well documented.

This also misses the point that practicing on grass fields and then playing on turf puts our teams at an incredible disadvantage. Simply put, playing on different surfaces is like playing different games. The balls move incredibly faster on turf than they do on grass, and from personally watching countless soccer games you can see it always takes our teams the better part of the first half to adjust to the speed of the game.

Talk to the athletes. They’ll all say the same.

The editorial also says nothing of the need to improve our softball and baseball fields. Are those teams, who have been incredibly successful, with the baseball team having won multiple state championships in recent past and softball team being current three-peat section champions, just supposed to continue practicing and playing on fields that have been consistently described as the worst in all of Section VI?

Having been well involved with this process, I can confidently say the school board and the administration understands this is a big ask of the community. Nobody wants to see their taxes raised. With that being said, the district hasn’t had a building project in the past 25 years, a number that’s unheard of, and if the past school boards and administrations would have taken the initiative to upgrade our facilities gradually, we wouldn’t be faced with the proposed tax increase that these propositions come with. The bottom line is if you want nice things for our kids and community, they cost money.

Lastly, let us also not forget that over the past 20 years or so there have been three proposed schools mergers with Fredonia, two with Brocton and one with Forestville. All three were voted down.

When it comes to sharing, it seems like the local communities have already spoken.

JESSE BEERS,

Fredonia

If approved, many will feel the pinch

Editor, OBSERVER:

Bravo and kudos to the editorial staff of the OBSERVER for its recent editorial, “We need more sharing, not new facilities” (Dec. 7-8).

Those are my feelings as are a number of people I have talked to, except for the previous board president. Neither has the board of administration thought how this tax rate will affect village residents.

As reported, 25% of the village lives under the poverty level. My guess is that least another 25% of village residents are senior citizens who live on pensions and/or Social Security. This $350 figure is an average, which means some residents will be affected with a higher tax rate that will never go away.

For 30 years I’ve heard about mergers and shared services. Ten years ago, there was a failed attempt to merge with Brocton. The Fredonia girls swimming team has a number of students from other schools as an example.

While this was a noble attempt by the school district and — I assume — a number of residents, it doesn’t pass the budget test. There is no better time to start shared services than now.

ANDREW CHRISTINA,

Former school board member,

Fredonia