As for the issue of increased distances for children before they are eligible for bus transportation a few of things come to mind:
1. The way the distance is calculated is wrong – it should have nothing to do with the distance a car or bus would have to go, it should be strictly on the shortest distance from the school. For example, Summit Lane has designated the Summit Lane gate opening as an exit – or currently in order to calculate the distance a child living near Bucket and Owl, if traveling by car or bus has to go all the way around and enter from the north and we all know that Bucket and Owl is a very short distance from the school and so buses were provided – a waste.
2. The person writing last week spoke of 900 petitions so the 15,000 plus homes (and assuming 2 per household eligible to sign making it more like 450 households) are being held hostage and you want us to pay an extra $57 per year for transportation for your child while you go to work. Okay, I give up, for example, one night out for dinner each year – what are you sacrificing?
3. I have empathy for your work situation but there are other choices – when my children were growing up my wife worked part time and an evening shift so that one of us was always around. Ah yes, we did not have the cable TV and other items that a second full-time job would provide. What are you sacrificing?
4. Contrary to Senator Schumer, there are many of us who are appalled at some of the “little porky items.”
5. In recent years we, the taxpayers, have paid for new artificial tracks at the high schools, nice new artificial turf fields, lights that are on at night for people to use and leave behind their Snapple bottles, etc. that we, the taxpayers, again have to pay to have the maintenance folks clean up or the track that will have to be patched because the weeds are growing in and delaminating the surface… thought – how about helping to save money by either making sure the mess is not left, or cleaning it up, or going around and pulling weeds before the track is ruined.
6. Maybe some of you people who want us to kick in just a little (everything is just a little but sooner or later a bunch of little things becomes a lot of money) for the busing might also step forward and help to save an equivalent amount.
7. Previously I have sent in many letters asking when we would be paying for new parking lots because they were not properly maintained, lights being left on in the day time and many other small items – well, I see Summit Lane now has new sidewalk and driveway aprons…when is the blacktop lot going to be paved, when are the tennis courts going to be replaced, etc?
I am not sorry if this is not politically correct but it is my money also!
Tom Caro
