Stephen Scarfo thinks the taxpayers of Raymond NH are not his problem. Instead of cutting taxes he thinks we should fund for catastrophic emergencies like a truck running into a building but when he wants to make Mr. Longo look bad, he puts words in his mouth and compares them to raining or buying a car without insurance. How many trucks have run into a school building? You heard that right, that’s what he said. Insurance and registration is part of the automobile purchase. He neglects to face some cold hard facts because it doesn’t fit his agenda.
First, most residents don’t use the failing school system period. The cuts proposed would only affect the children if they cut teachers and books. No one advocated to cut teachers or books, Scarfo did. Where would I cut the money? First, so everyone knows, I was the one who suggested years ago that they purchase Chrome books when the Superintendent at the time wanted to buy MacBooks. So, Scarfo can’t claim that as one of his cost cutting measures. Why would we fund Chromebooks for any student? If the parents can buy their kids the latest PlayStation or 41,000.00 + iPhone, Then they can buy their kid the Chrome Book for under $200.00. How many of these chrome books, chargers, and mice have never been returned? Again, why should I fund someone else’s kid’s equipment? FYI Scarfo, I have a Chrome book I use for model making research. Still humming after 6 years. They only last a few years if you don’t get them back.
Second, why should I as a current taxpayer pay taxes now on something that may or may not happen 10, 15, 20 years from now when I am either dead or moved out of Town? Let the people with school-age kids pay that as they will be in town when that is needed. You need to investigate why they don’t want to cut or break up the boiler costs? Scarfo says that it would cost twice as much if it wasn’t funded all together at the same time. I folks did, as you should, look at the “Boiler/Fuel Tank” replacement. Watch the SB meetings in December when they talked about addressing the boiler replacements. The information they moved forward with was filled with ifs, maybes, and estimations. No hard numbers were given. They keep talking about replacing the boilers but the only 3 choices I heard were propane, Wood, and Solar. Now propane would be the solution as it could easily become the secondary source when Nuclear Fusion comes online. My understanding is it’s a solar play because the offsetting funding is in solar not propane and wood. This is what they want to strap the town with. Solar is the cassette player of the energy industry. Here today, gone tomorrow. In addition, there is no guarantee that the proposed cost savings this budget item is based on are even available. All I heard was maybes and estimates there. So, the number they throw about is not guaranteed at all and most definitely will be more later. Budget committee member Nick Longo knew that and brought it up as it fell on deaf ears. This is a boondoggle. If they cared about saving money, they would have done all this stuff in pieces. LED light rehabs have been the thing for years. Why wasn’t the upgrade done 3 -4 years ago when it was cheaper? Do the boilers 1 at a time you can’t tell me that doing them together will save 100s of 1,000s of dollars. You would be lucky if it saved 10%. If that was done already, we would have one of the boilers on the way to being paid off.
They want solar and need the shocking costs of “Boiler/tank” replacement to make the taxpayer afraid of not doing it because of the cost. If they came to you with just a solar proposal, it would never fly because it is not cost-effective as a stand-alone energy source. Any businessperson knows that you replace as needed and fund for maintenance as the yearly budget item. Again Mr. Longo pointed that out… Not wait until you need millions you don’t have and can’t fund through revenue (taxes) or investment savings.
They think they are smarter than you are especially this Scarfo guy. He is running for election this year. VOTE HIM OUT. We don’t need anyone who thinks our income is his tax revenue. Especially when his ideas are sophomoric at best. Look into this solar project, it’s a waste of money with no hard numbers. If solar is such a great idea, then why don’t these advocates purchase some land and built their own solar farm and sell the electricity? Because it is not a profitable business model in New Hampshire where it snows, has freezing temperatures, and is at the wrong Latitude. The tropics (from 0 to 23.5° latitude) receive about 90% of the energy compared to the equator, the mid-latitudes (45°) roughly 70%, and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles about 40%. I have a home at 19.5429° N, 155.6659° W and the solar powers my 2,400Sq ft home and swimming pool (it would also power an electric vehicle if I was dumb enough to buy one). I don’t have it at the home I own in Raymond. It’s not rocket science and facts are facts.
