Manistique Schools Proposals:
Fact and Fiction 2


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(4) I wouldn't vote to pay for new school facilities, operated by chronic lamers who waste money faster than I can earn it!. Its a waste of my money!

Fiction, because the need for new facilities is an issue of progress that has no relevance to how lame in the head some folk are. Vote for the facilities now, and vote the lamers out next time. It is grossly unjust and selfish to hold children hostage to the political and philosophical conflicts of adults.



(5) Manistique's infrastructure will not support a new consolidated school built at the Lakeside location. The sewers are shot, the water main is insufficient, the road surface is awful and the new school facilities will cause electrical "brownouts".

Fiction, mostly, and what is not should be made fiction, in short order. The old sewers do have problems, but were determined by the City's engineering company to be of adequate size. If a local sewer cannot handle the designed load, then it should be repaired or replaced, as any other part of the city's infrastructure is, if it does not work and creates grief for many people. The new school has access to a new water main that can provide all the water it needs for normal use and fire protection. Depending on vehicle routing, increased wear of local streets will be relatively insignificant."Brownouts" caused by the school, if they occur, should be eliminated by Edison Sault by upgrading electrical service to the school.

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02/26/02

At the Manistique city council meeting, last night, City Manager Housler showed council members a current document, from the engineering firm of Tetra Tech MPS, Inc, that verified that the design capacity of the sewers, in the vicinity of Oak St., are more than sufficient to carry the increased sewage load from the proposed consolidated school addition. The city manager stated, again, that the known problems exposed by a television inspection, of the sewer under Oak Street, were relatively minor and would pose no problem to repair.

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The consequences of infrastructure neglect in Manistique, is historical and, generally speaking, the City of Manistique and Schoolcraft County voters are a cynical lot, with justifiable reasons, in many cases. Official incompetence, deceit and self serving agendas had brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy by 1989, but none of that history should bear on the consolidated school issue.

If voter/ residents hold acting officials accountable and vote into office responsible, competent individuals, the proposed school at Lakeside will be a significant community asset that should prompt infrastructure renewal, in the area of the school. For a voter to vote against the school as a consequence of some lame brained official decision or action, is to join the ranks of the "lame brains".



(6) If the elementary schools are consolidated, teachers will be fired.

Fiction, because if the student teacher ratio remains the same as it is today, the same number of teachers would be required, whether they teach in 3 schools, 15 schools, or one consolidated school. It is a goal of M.A.S. to reduce the student teacher ratio, if affordable; not increase it.



(7) The elementary school students will be subject to high school style class scheduling.

Fiction, because it has never been the intent of Manistique Area Schools to teach elementary grades in other than all day self contained classrooms; a nationwide school policy. There is a great deal of difference between idle gossip and official action.



(8) Money from the millage proposals will be used for school personnel salaries, retirement funds, fringe benefits, Caribbean vacations, wild parties, etc....

Fiction, because an independent professional auditing company audits the expenditure of all revenues generated by the sale of the "school bonds" that will be paid back by millage revenues. This is not Enron business and it ain't a typical Yooper Aunt Millie/ Uncle Charlie project, either. It is straight forward and relatively simple business. No project of this magnitude can be without a degree of fraud, and theft, but they will be minimized by professional accounting, management and supervision.



(9) After all the money wasted on re-paving the high school parking lot, the schools doesn't deserve a dime!

Fiction, because the decision to do the job, properly, was the right one. Idle speculative gossip about the facts may have value, but it does not make the facts.

The parking lot was breaking up and a decision was made to repair it. After the bids for repair were received it was decided by the M.A.S. Board to repair and resurface the entire parking lot, as the repair bids were too close to the costs of resurfacing the whole lot. The additional, but reasonable cost of replacing the sand parking lot base, with a more appropriate foundation, was incurred when it was discovered that the original base was not appropriate, by current engineering standards.

There was no overwhelming reason to do the job wrong, so the job was done correctly, at a good price. Though the M.A.S. Board took a lot of heat, in the streets, for spending money to make right a previously unknown problem, they provided the best value for the taxpayers' dollars, under trying circumstances.


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