Thumbs down to the vandals who have damaged fixtures at the public bathrooms in Old Orchard Beach. Because of the vandals’ selfishness and stupidity, now it appears all might have to pay a fee to answer a call of nature. Old Orchard Beach is a summer community that relies heavily on tourism. People love the beach, they buy drinks and snacks from nearby vendors or bring them in a picnic from home ”“ and nature takes its course. So the community really does need to provide public facilities and it costs money to maintain them and to have an attendant to deter vandals. Those who vandalize and destroy public property should be ashamed.

Thumbs up to all Trek Across Maine participants who put in many hours of training and fundraising to take part in the 180-mile bike ride this past weekend. The trek drew 40 members from Biddeford’s Community Bicycle Center alone, including nine children, showing that York County’s support of the American Lung Association is strong. Those who donated to support these bicyclists in their commitment to this cause will provide funds to help people avoid and treat lung cancer and deal with other lung diseases. We applaud all of those who took part or donated.

Thumbs down to Hollis and Buxton voters for rejecting funds to retain and reuse historic buildings in each town. Buxton voters chose not to provide $68,000 to study reuse of the Hanson School as a community center, while Hollis voters decided that $64,000 wouldn’t be spent to determine the best community use for the old Hollis High School. At least in the case of the Hollis building, demolition is planned, meaning this part of the town’s history will be lost forever. It seems a shame for the towns to get rid of these buildings instead of holding onto them in hopes of better economic times when they could be used again. We understand that money is tight, but demolition is forever and by not retaining these buildings, the youth of these towns are being robbed of an opportunity to connect with their past in a physical way. The Town of Lyman, in contrast, has chosen to allocate money for the Cousens School, of which the town has already assumed ownership, and that building will eventually become an asset to the town as a community space. Much of a small town’s identity is wrapped up in its buildings, and we regret to see that voters did not see any value in keeping two historic venues in place.

Thumbs down to the few people who can’t take “all clear” for an answer at Biddeford High School. These parents’ concerns about air quality in the building were valid and testing was in order to determine possible pollutants, irritants and toxins, as students were experiencing respiratory issues. But now that the results are in, showing that there are no major problems with indoor air quality there, it’s time for the parents to accept the report. It was noble of them to fight for their children’s health, and they have helped push the school district to increase its cleaning and air clearing efforts. Now that the district is doing all it can, however, and the building has been given a clean bill of health, continued complaints sound like so much bleating. It’s time to move on.

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Thumbnails is a Monday feature of the Journal Tribune’s opinion pages. If you would like to respond, please write the Reader’s Forum via e-mail at jtcommunity@journaltribune.com or by dropping your letter off at our Biddeford or Sanford offices.