I hope that the Lakes Region Weekly will do more research in the future before weighing in on an issue it that is so vital to the continuing improvement in Gray-New Gloucester, a pair of towns very much on the rise. The reasoning you provide for your “vote no” advice in the Oct. 17 editorial regarding the school bonds runs as such: “The school board should have at least waited a few years until those projects were paid off before coming in with a $7.5 million proposal …”

That’s funny, because that’s exactly what the school board did. The district’s 2006 bond matures in 2017-2018, the same year that debt service on this new borrowing begins.

Further, we’re talking about a maximum increase in property taxes in a single year, over the life of the bond, of $61.91 for a $200,000 home.

And, finally, we’re in a period of historically low borrowing rates. Should we wait longer for our schools to crumble and then pay a higher rater later?

Then there is this “bundling” issue. I also find this amusing. The town of Gray used to have a little thing called Town Meeting, where we could vote up or down on any number of line items in the budget. However, in the interest of “democracy,” we decided to do away with that in favor of voting up or down on the budget as a piece, an argument that was widely supported. I still grumble about the lack of wisdom involved there, but it seems like the same logic applies here, and I would hope that the overwhelming majority of folks who did away with Town Meeting would keep their thinking consistent. We’ve elected a slate of school board members (who ran unopposed, if memory serves) to make these decisions for us. Let’s support the work they’ve done, rather than just reject “more spending” out of hand, without even bothering to look up the facts.

These are the sorts of folks who wouldn’t be so short-sighted as to argue that learning inside a classroom is somehow more valuable than learning on an athletic field or in “extra-curricular” activities. These are the sorts of folks who rightly value the creation of well-rounded and multi-talented kids who are well prepared for the world at large.

I will be proudly voting yes on both school bonds, and I hope that my friends in Gray and New Gloucester will join me in investing in our town’s future.

Sam Pfeifle

Gray