Guest Column: Why I Will Vote No on the May 8th PRIME Initiative (And Why You Should Too)
At the Feb. 20 PRIME Initiative Community Meeting at Berkshire High School in Burton, Superintendent John Stoddard admitted that a trucking-company magnate was the most interested party to potentially purchase land currently occupied by Berkshire school district’s two Village of Burton campuses if the PRIME Initiative passes during a vote on May 8, 2018. I’m concerned, and I think you should be, too.
I am passionate about my adopted home of Burton. I love that my husband and I can raise our two young children in place that is as beautiful, historic, safe and wonderfully-traditional as Burton is. I relish the opportunities I have to serve local government and nonprofits as a community volunteer. Love doesn’t begin to cover what I feel for the 140-plus-year-old Victorian home that my husband and I steward. I adore the school my children attend, Burton Elementary, too. It provides warmth, safety, ambitious scholastic standards, and a sensitive, good-citizenship-driven educational environment.
All of this is true, which is why it pains me to say: I cannot support the PRIME Initiative, which would shutter the three existing Berkshire school district campuses (Ledgemont Elementary, Burton Elementary and Berkshire High School) in favor of a new, combined campus on the current Kent State University – Geauga campus.
Here’s why I can’t support PRIME: no change as big as what is being proposed should be undertaken without a strong community roadmap behind it – a solid plan that looks at not only the benefits of a new campus for our children’s education, but accounts for the use of the very large pieces of real estate that will be abandoned as a result. Although conversations in the community are underway, the kind of reassurance I would hope for as a homeowner simply will not happen in time for the May 8 referendum to determine whether or not we are willing to support a $50,000,000 combined campus outside of the Village of Burton’s limits.
Here’s what this initiative means to residents: increased taxes; the possible loss of the district’s teachers’ tax revenue to the Village (KSU Geauga is outside the village’s limits); unchecked influence of corporate interests into our children’s education (local companies will purportedly sponsor classes to prepare our children for entry-level jobs that they are currently having a hard time filling) and most disturbingly, the potential of the large pieces of abandoned real estate in the Burton Village Historic District being sold off for industrial purposes.
Big, ugly, carbon-laden industry moving in to our quaint, historic, tourist-dollar-driven Village – that wouldn’t happen would it? Stoddard, when questioned about what might happen to the existing high school and grammar school properties on Feb. 20, told the gathered crowd of parents and concerned citizens the most interested buyer is Richard Bonner, CEO of DSI Bulk Transport Inc., a trucking company. While thoughts on the potential land use of Burton Elementary School are currently centering on an assisted living center for the elderly, one can only guess what Bonner might propose for the large, centrally-located high school campus. If trucking is at the heart of those plans, my home and the homes of my immediate neighbors, would be nearly uninhabitable due to congestion and air pollution. The village would lose an unrecoverable amount of its historic character. And while the high school property is not zoned for anything other than a school or community center currently, it isn’t a stretch to foresee prolonged battles over re-zoning that might ensue following such a land purchase, which would keep these big properties vacant (and dangerous) as it plays out in local government and courts.
My neighbors and fellow citizens: I strongly encourage you not to go into this May 8 vote blindly. Attend a meeting. Ask the hard questions, including – who is this initiative really best for: local industry, construction and corporations or our children? And what will this big school campus push really mean for the place we call home, and for the families and tourist-driven businesses that have been bold enough to invest in Burton? It’s time to think big picture – for the sake of our community now and in the future.
Alison Weeks
Burton Village
