As a Scarborough resident who’s been reading the recent articles regarding concerns with the high school renovations, I am writing an open letter to our Town Council and would appreciate your printing it.
Members of the Scarborough Town Council:
I have a daughter who will enter Scarborough High School this fall. Parents of incoming freshmen had an opportunity a few weeks ago to attend an orientation meeting and tour the school. Though we enjoyed the talk that the principal gave, the highlight of the evening was having the chance to go through the school. It is absolutely beautiful and as we walked around, my husband and I kept exclaiming what a wonderful job they’d done and we chatted with several others that evening who felt similarly. Of course, we are not building contractors, but we were extremely impressed. As we left that evening, I thought about writing a note to the School Board expressing our gratitude for their hard work in getting this project through. However, as often happens, my good intention slipped by and the next thing I knew articles began appearing that question the quality of the work. I was surprised since we’d just been through the school, but I was relieved to see that the School Board and the construction firm working on the project had committed to go over things. Perhaps I am an idealist and believe in people too much but in reading their comments (and realizing that with every construction project issues will arise) I believe that this firm will stand behind their work and I have faith in our School Board that they will work to ensure this. Before we start condemning the project, why not let them finish the work? I am certain that what all of us want (the School Board, the Town Council, the construction firm and the residents of our town) is for Scarborough High School to be a top notch, quality school.
I am concerned with the tone of Mr. Messer’s comments about both the construction firm and our School Board. This is an enormous project and the timeframe that they’ve worked in to complete it has been amazing. The project manager for this project has given his word. The School Board has submitted documents to address Mr. Messer’s concerns and the superintendent has said he’s having representatives from the Department of Education come in to examine the documents – FOR FREE. I have also read that the bulk of Mr. Messer’s information on “problems” was “given” to him by a disgruntled ex-employee of the firm doing the work. This raises red flags for me. What is the nature of their relationship? And what, if any, relationship does Mr. Messer have with the engineer(s) that he’s convinced that we must have look through at a cost of $20,000? I don’t know Mr. Messer but I sense a real unwillingness on his part to work with our School Board and with the firm that was hired to do this job.
As a citizen of Scarborough, I would ask the entire Town Council to slow down, take a deep breath and really question whether or not this situation is as horrendous as Mr. Messer and the ex-employee say it is, or perhaps, should we have faith in all of the others who have worked so hard to bring this project to fruition and give them opportunity to address these issues? I think that to continue on this quest to discredit both the construction firm and our School Board does an enormous disservice to our town and does nothing but facilitate division and discord between the School Board and the Town Council. Is that what we want? I urge you to step back and work together to resolve the issues brought forth in a less adversarial way. Think about it – thanks.
Barbara Price
Scarborough
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