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| "One half of me is a hopeless romantic, the other half is so damn realistic." Beatification Candidate  |
I toured our high school, built in 1971, plagued with mold, undercapity for our growing population, and ill-equipped for today's curriculum. Because of Massachusetts local property tax ceilings, the town must pass an override to fund a renovation. Here are the photos I took with descriptions of the deficiencies. High School Tour
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| knitterati Beatification Candidate  |
Are you going to do all yarn, or wrap styrofoam balls? The displays I've seen use styrofoam. (Starbucks and a yarn shop)
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Minor Deity |
Styro is the way to go..otherwise there is less yarn to use for other things!
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Wow. So sad. That was a very well constructed building back in the day. The first thing they need to do is fire whoever is in charge of maintaining that building. If anyone mentions the word "budget" during the firing, fire that person too. These problems did not crop up over night.
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| "One half of me is a hopeless romantic, the other half is so damn realistic." Beatification Candidate |
They did not. They are compounded by the fact that Massachusetts prop 2 1/2 limits tax increases, resulting in skimping on maintenance. The biggest issue is that the high school was built on the flood plain of our river. All of the building plant and maintenance is in the basement, the floor of which has sunk below the water table. So even running the ventilation full times puts moisture back into the building. The maintenance staff is relegated to putting fingers in the dike. The town has made a proposal to renovate the school and address the moisture issues. The state has agreed to kick in almost 1/3 of the cost. But the citizens have to pass a budget override vote to authorize the project. If it doesn't pass, the state money goes away, and dike continues to spring leaks. They replace the ceiling and floor tiles and repaint and patch the roof on a regular basis, but haven't had funding for major repairs. The whole system is broken.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
So what is the plan? Are they going to move the air handlers out of the basement? If they don't they are pouring money down a rathole.
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| "One half of me is a hopeless romantic, the other half is so damn realistic." Beatification Candidate |
That is part of the plan. Essentially they want to gut the building, leaving the supports and slabs, move all the utilities to the first floor, decommission the basement, install water barriers and insulation, add three new wings, rearrange the classrooms, and start over again with sustainable building design. The proposal passed town meeting overwhelmingly last night. The citizens have to vote on the override on December 10. I've been up all night writing an article for the local paper on the tour I took. A lot of peoples' knee-jerk reaction to any override vote is "hell no". I want to do my part to make sure people know what they are voting for or against.
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| Minor Deity |
Good luck with that RF. Our HS was built in 1959. Our new one is under construction right now at a cost just under $100 million.  It will not be complete in time for Shorty, a Junior this year.  And we will then be ready to move out of the tax region as we just can't afford it anymore, less so when we don't get to reap the rewards.
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| "One half of me is a hopeless romantic, the other half is so damn realistic." Beatification Candidate |
$130 million here minus a $45 million grant from the state. choochiefingers will be able to experience the first phase of the renovation. The whole thing will be finished for monkeyfingers' junior year. If the override passes.
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| knitterati Beatification Candidate |
Agreed. Also, they have better shape and won't droop.
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| knitterati Beatification Candidate |
Sunday's hike. Couldn't get these to post from my phone. I was in Ellensburg, WA, visiting friends who moved to the dry side of the Cascade Mountains.   Umtanum Creek. Probably flows into the Yakima River. Pretty!
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| "One half of me is a hopeless romantic, the other half is so damn realistic." Beatification Candidate |
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Beatification Candidate |
Not my favorite Chevy. The model year before was classic. Big Al
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
I'm catching up, so instead of "today I saw", it's more like "over the last couple of weeks I saw". I remember to take the pics, but not to upload and post them here. The Japanese maple's color is glorious:  Got a German car? Italian? I've got the place for you:  At World Market:  Been seeing a lot of these trees lately in commercial plantings. I think it's an Autumn Blaze maple, which I think has red and silver maples in its background. Really nice color and they don't seem be nearly as messy as their silver maple ancestor. Nicer structure, too.  Sand sculptures at a local mall.   
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Beatification Candidate |
This was on our morning walk. (I am liking this semi-retirement life!) Ginko trees after the first good frost drop leaves all in one day. This one will probably be bare by this afternoon! 
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