James Keen (“Crucial to get right people for RBHS school board,” Letters, Jan. 26) mentioned Riverside-Brookfield High School has a high debt ratio for which he blames the District as fiscally incompetent. He goes on to say this debt needs our immediate attention, and to carry debt is a bad fiscal practice.
As we know debt is different from deficit. Everyone knows “debt” incurred for expenses like purchasing a flat-screen TV on your credit card is bad debt, but some debt is OK, like your home mortgage. The majority of the “debt” RBHS has is in response to the community’s demand for an investment in our building, our home, the place where our young adults spend more time than their own homes and a place where people have to work every day.
The community was tired of wasting our tax dollars applying band aids to a facility and mechanical infrastructure that was broken and had gone neglected for years. The facility was inadequate to house 1,450 students in a safe and healthy environment. Those bonds, RB’s debt, the mortgage, is being paid down every year increasing our bond capacity and ratings.
Initially, I had concerns about the investment in the football field/fieldhouse and pool, but after getting to know the facts and discovering the tax dollars wasted to maintain that old field and especially the pool, which was rendered obsolete and bleeding tax dollars, was unacceptable.
We had our athletic teams being bused to fields around the community at taxpayers’ expense. With the fieldhouse addition, we can hold and host several events simultaneously, generating revenue. The fieldhouse is available for our community youth programs and provides open gym and open pool time for all students, keeping them off the streets.
The final indicator is that seven days a week, night and day, the community – young, senior citizens, entire families – using the track, fieldhouse and pool. Any given weekend you will see several groups of young adults on the field and off the streets. Now that is an indication of a healthy community.
Don’t forget the millions of dollars the taxpayers will save over the lifetime of our investment on repairs, energy, water and maintenance costs.
These are the kinds of investments communities make to keep a great school great, keep a community strong, our young adults engaged and stop the cycle of wasting taxpayer dollars on inadequate, broken-down facilities that can’t be utilized.
Jim Landahl
Brookfield
Jim Landahl is the co-chairman of Communities United for RBHS 2011 referendum committee.