As the Falmouth Town Council considers which way to proceed with the issue of library space, may they consider the dismal state of our economy. Maine and the town have poor industrial bases with scarce sources of revenue beyond taxation, especially taxation of our homes. Falmouth, in setting it’s spending goals, will likely reduce positions in the schools and other departments, as well as have to spend more on schools if the state reduces aid.

Taxpayers are still paying for a high school, and are about to begin paying for a new grammar school. The town is in no position, financially, to undertake the cost of a library at the Plummer-Motz-Lunt site without unnecessarily burdening homeowners with increased taxes, debt service on bonds, and/or dipping into the “rainy day” fund. Thus the question: Do we truly need, versus desire, a new site and building requiring hundreds of thousands in renovation costs to create a Taj Mahal for the library? Short answer: No, we simply can’t afford it.

Sell the buildings at Plummer-Motz-Lunt, every last one of them, and the land they sit on, and let the private sector develop the area. Jobs, so direly needed, will be created in the process, and Falmouth will have a new source of taxation and money flowing to it’s treasury instead of an outflow for a project of dubious merit.

If the library, arguably, needs more room, have them expand on site following the least costly option.

Ronald A. Hart
Falmouth

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