To the Editor:
What is the cost of silence? Is $40 million enough to get your attention?
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School urgently needs $100,000,000 in repairs and improvements, and the six island towns need to agree on how to divide that cost.
Historically, our high school costs have been allocated by the number of students attending from each town. Some feel that the project cost should be allocated on some other basis, perhaps property values or residential housing units. Others are happy with the current method, and have declined to participate in discussions.
If there is no agreement, the project may not receive funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which could be worth $40,000,000 — money we would all have to make up out of our own wallets.
The high school project will be financed with debt. All six towns must approve that debt or the project cannot go forward, and we will lose the MSBA funding and face escalating costs with each delay.
Please urge your selectmen to come to these discussions with an open mind and a willingness to consider changing the status quo. Refusing to talk will cost every town millions.
Jon Snyder, finance director
Tisbury
Make MV one town, one school district, one police force, one everything. Combine revenue and cost, collapse costs due to synergy and reduced overlap and duplication. Operate as one entity. MV essentially is a city of 16 thousand people most of the year. The savings will be large and the efficiency will be significant.