We're writing this letter to attempt to convince the electorate of Camden and Rockport to vote against the building of a new middle school. The vote for this is on February 10 at the Town office in Rockport and the Washington Street Conference room in Camden. You can vote early at either the Rockport or Camden Town Hall.

Given the fact that population projections have the school population in our two towns decreasing by up to 10 percent during the next several years makes one wonder why there is a need to build a $28 million dollar new Middle School.

Granted, the present structure needs rehabilitation, a cost estimated at $18 million dollars but we are rushing into this and given the present student population forecasts, let's give this more thought before committing to spending so much money on a Middle School. Vote NO on FEBRUARY 10.

We wonder why the vote has to have a special election day in February.

Our instincts tell us it is because the vote might just be easier to manipulate on an off election day. we have asked the school board to move the vote to June when it would get a clearer reading of the communities and not burden the towns with the cost of an additional election.

This new middle school will be supported by SAD 28, which is just Camden and Rockport. There is no state, federal, or private money involved. The entire cost of the project will be absorbed by the two participating communities. It will be paid for by a multi-year bond issued by the State of Maine at a yet undetermined rate.

It has been presented to the voter at a most favorable rate and in fact the rate even today is much higher than the proposal that increases the tax in Rockport by $87 per $100,000 and in Camden by $81. It will conceivably be much higher.

The question for the community should be do we need to spend almost $30 million to replace our existing school. Is the sacrifice for each property owner of many 100s of dollars a year really needed to educate grades five through eight?

The interesting thing is the typical motivation for building a new school includes environmental issues, mold, or over-crowding. Our school has none of those. In fact, one of the primary reasons that the School Board has stated is that the school is too large and we need to build a smaller one.

It's true: The school-age population of our area is expected to decline somewhat in the next decade.

Energy efficiency is another issue and it has been mentioned that we can potentially cut our use to help compensate for the cost of the new building.

We have already replaced all the windows in the current school with energy efficient windows and have reconfigured the heating system to make it more efficient. If one walks through the school, the first feeling is that there are areas that are heated that perhaps shouldn't be.

Certainly, all of us would like to keep our houses as warm as the school.

Take a walk through, look at what are perceived to be insurmountable problems, and wonder how they compare to the wish list that you have for your own home.

Instead of voting to approve, your NO vote will generate more conversation, join in that conversation.

The Feb 10 decision has not been thoroughly vetted and before we rush to build a new middle school lets send a message to the school board to do more homework.

We all wish that we can have the best maintained roads and bridges, houses that are fully maintained and provide for all our tastes, automobiles that are new and modern and schools that fulfill all the modern needs of teaching.

We wish for that if we can afford to do it.

Our communities, our taxpayers can not afford to do this, there is just not enough need.

Thank you,

Martin Cates
John French
Don White
Jim Heard
Leonard Lookner
Who all happen to be selectmen in the Town of Camden