To The Editor:

The discussion has been joined in these pages and before the Marion town administrators, weighing the relative merits of renovating the Town House versus a new building on the recently acquired VFW property.

While the specific cost figures are only estimates and subject to substantial revision, there is no argument that new construction is less costly than renovation, comparing by square foot or by total outlay. The difference is measured in millions of dollars – taxpayer dollars.

The question is not just one of architecture or operations or traditions or village atmosphere; it’s a matter of trade-offs between competing needs and competing opportunities in the face of limited resources. I wish that there were resources sufficient to do it all, to preserve the past and meet the challenges of the future, but we all know better. To me the best forward looking investment we can make with our taxes is the education of our young people.

Yet, year after year our school budgets are squeezed, courses and programs are dropped, athletics become pay-to-play, maintenance is deferred, staffing is cut. The ability of our town – and our state and our nation – to deal effectively with the challenges of the future depends largely on how well our educational system can prepare our children, to equip them with the skills and knowledge and character they will need.

Mr. Hills in his recent letter asked that the Town House be renovated to serve “another 100 years.” It is a lovely sentiment, but does not really address what the needs of Marion in that next century might be.

We already know that new technologies have revolutionized communications between the town’s officials and the citizenry, a revolution that is far from over.

How the town’s departments do their business and serve the residents has already changed and will continue to change, with new efficiencies and capabilities coming from new technology, and new needs to be addressed.

It is logical that a new building, designed for flexibility and efficiency, will be the better investment, especially if the savings, both in construction and in operation, find their way into something forward-looking, like education.

Edmund P. OConnell

Marion