About a year ago West Bath voted to form a committee to develop the best plan for withdrawal from RSU 1. This committee met weekly, spent countless hours, and has expended $35,000 to $40,000 to accomplish this. A copy of this plan as well as all other work product is available for viewing on West Bath’s website.

Now it is time for West Bath to consider withdrawing from RSU 1 and I urge all citizens to please take the time to vote on Jan. 13, 2015 at the West Bath Fire Station; or better yet , stop by the town office and vote right there during normal business hours. Early voting is available as are absentee ballots; also at the Town Office.

I am asking the voters of West Bath to VOTE To WITHDRAW from RSU 1 for one plain and simple reason. I have no trust in RSU 1. And this is due to the way they chose to handle the illegal changing of the full onethird budget formula that all of RSU 1 community voted for when RSU 1 was formed. The RSU 1 Board of Directors ignored their own legal counsel who stated in writing that they could not legally interpret the one-third formula to only apply to 12 percent of the RSU 1 budget. By the time this “mistake” was discovered, by Woolwich town officials, West Bath had overpaid approximately $1.9 million and the City of Bath had underpaid around $1.6 million.

It should also be noted that RSU 1 in 2013 voted to have the State subsidy applied to the individual communities rather than to the RSU 1 as a whole, which is the purpose of the subsidy. So much for an RSU 1 community with no boundaries. At the same time RSU 1 continues to pay off the city of Bath’s $10 million-$11 million school debt. The RSU 1 we all believed that we voted for is not the RSU 1 we now have.

The RSU 1 Board of Directors admitted this funding “error”, and yet they have never stepped up to the plate to correct the “mistake” and pay West Bath back. They forced West Bath to take RSU 1 and Bath to court and now Bath dares to say that the fair thing to do is to pay West Bath a negotiated settlement of $ 1.25 million. The fair and just thing to do was to pay us back $1.9 million as soon as the funding “mistake” was uncovered. That is what a trusted neighbor would have done. That is what West Bath would have done if we had underpaid $1.9 million. If roles were reversed, no other community in RSU 1 would merely walk away from $1.9 million.

It should be noted that West Bath for many, many years had a school board, educated its students, passed a budget and maintained the West Bath School; and I am confident that we, West Bath, can do the same in the future.

In closing, we need at least 560 votes cast for this to be considered a legal vote or else the vote will be set aside as invalid; therefore I am asking the voters of West Bath to please take the time to vote and to VOTE to WITHDRAW from RSU 1 on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015.

David P. Hennessey
West Bath