This week we come together at two parades in Falmouth, one to honor our residents who died fighting for our country and one to honor our school buildings that hide among their walls the echoes of our past.

On June 14 we will make a decision at the polls that will dramatically affect key buildings in our town. The trustees of the Falmouth Memorial Library have concluded the library has outgrown its current site and can’t be expanded cost-effectively. Fortunately, voters have an opportunity to move the Falmouth Memorial Library, name intact, to another meaningful building up the street.

The question is do we preserve the school buildings and give them new life as an expanded library and a community center and convert the “Town Gravel” into a Town Green? Do we join communities around the country, like Westbrook and Portland, who have chosen not to level their old schools, but to put them to new uses instead?

The answer is Yes. Yes on 1. Question 1 provides Falmouth with an opportunity we can’t pass by. It authorizes the town to renovate our school buildings for new uses to benefit the community without raising taxes. If the money can’t be raised through the financial package put together by the Town Council, the project won’t proceed.

If this referendum fails, the school site will be sold to a developer, requiring more town services. Our town will lose a prominent landmark that defines who we are.

Vote yes on 1.

Councilor Bonny Rodden
Falmouth


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