Where is this answer
Editorial

Last week, The Monument published a photo of a small portion of a local building and asked "where is this?" We received numerous answers, all asking if the bank of windows in disrepair was Russell School in Gray. One person asked if it was Memorial School. Nope to all. Rose Dorr of Gray knew.

I deliberately took the photo of that particular building for a reason. It has to do with the School Board and the Town of Gray Council.

We all know that the old SAD 15 Boards and Administration did not do a very good job of maintaining their buildings. All the time I hear, "The SAD can't be trusted to keep up a building," or, "All it took was a coat of paint." True, the sins of the past are coming back to haunt taxpayers now. But also true is that this is a different Administration and Board than in the past and this group for the last four years has been working hard to work with the community to remedy those sins.

After having surveyed the community through a referendum to determine the extent to which the towns want to keep all three elementary schools, and after having been denied by the state the SAD's application for capital project funding, the SAD is now working concurrently on applying for state Revolving Renovation funds and a local bond to pay for major overhauls of all five school buildings. They're on top of it.

Being a fan of irony and no fan of hypocrisy, I offer you this thought. The Town of Gray Council and Manager have worked very hard for two years to grab historic Pennell Institute away from the SAD because it is in disrepair. The tenor of their conversation has been that 'Pennell will fall down, Pennell will waste away, it's a centerpiece in the middle of town, we need to get it because we can take better care of it.'

So where is the photo of that run-down building? It is the old Post office in Gray, next to Gray Town Offices on Rt. 26. The building is a major capital asset in the middle of town, which once Gray acquired, has not seen a coat of paint in nearly three years. What a shame for a centerpiece building in the middle of town.

The SAD sinned, but that is over now. Let them get on with fixing what needs to be fixed and let's get behind them. Meanwhile, we can see that Gray is the classic pot calling the kettle black.