Friday, May 19, 2006

School Building Repairs

The reality is the city needs to get going on repairing school buildings around the city. Whatever happened in the past up to this point has left Fitchburg facing a sizable rehab job.

Mayor Dan Mylott wants to throw $200,000 in unused loan money from another project into school repairs, and may ask for more. It's just about impossible to ignore the issue any longer, and the city needs to dump money into these buildings.

But (and isn't there always a "but"), how about a thought-out, long-term plan for school building repair. How about figuring out priorities and strategic spending, put together a plan, and stick to it. Why ask for $200g here and $200g there and do this in inconsistent chunks, just running from one big problem to the other? Also, isn't there way to get some SBAB money for stuff that might be a few years away?

It often feels like Fitchburg goverment operates only as a reactionary mechanism without any sense of how the issue of the day fits into a longer scheme. The city is facing an unavoidable problem and expense with the schools. Putting together a thorough plan to tackle it might not be the worst idea.

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