By Rep. Wayne R. Parry
As people may or may not be aware, the vote on the $74.8 million renovations for Kennebunk High School, Mildred L. Day School and Kennebunkport Consolidated School will be held in January 2014. I was disappointed and confused with the odd date chosen to hold a vote on such an important issue.
According to data provided by the Kennebunkport town clerk and reported in the York County Coast Star last month, the town averages 76 percent voter turnout during November elections and 40 percent during June elections. A January vote was held in 2009 and attracted a whopping 6 percent of voters. According to the Arundel town clerk, the last vote held in January was in 2009 and only 35 residents voted. The largest non-November vote in the last decade was only 991; 2,281 residents voted in last year's November election.
The question every taxpayer in Arundel, Kennebunk, and Kennebunkport should be asking is "WHY?" This choice of election date makes it appear that the RSU Board wants a low turnout. Can you imagine holding one of the withdrawal votes on an off day, when even the largest non-November vote has only seen 991 voters or when the lowest in the last January vote was 35 voters? When
Arundel went through the withdrawal process my goal was a November vote so the largest possible turnout would be achieved. Win or lose, if 60-70 percent of the voters cast a ballot (which is the usual turnout in November), residents can be confident that the outcome is what the town wants.
That is not the only thing that should be reconsidered! The price tag should be adjusted to something more palatable. When you add in annual increases to a budget, and maintaining larger buildings the increases we are going to be faced with are going to be outrageous. We need to have safe buildings, at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer.
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