[Ed note: My Southborough accepts signed letters to the editor submitted by Southborough residents. Letters may be emailed to mysouthborough@gmail.com.
The following letter is from Carl Guyer.]
To the Editor:
Are you familiar with the expression ‘You can’t see the forest for the trees’ or a funnier version about alligators and the swamp? Well, at a recent discussion about the proposed new Neary school this idiom was on full display.
During a meeting with the Neary School Building Committee, the Select Board listened to a site review detailing the results of soil testing for dissolved toxic substances in the groundwater, potential gases from decomposition and the measures being taken to protect the school from these materials. All because the planned 100+ million dollar school site is next to and down hill from the now capped town open pit burn dump. The session consisted of a lot of rehashing of assurances the school was not in jeopardy. All this back and forth in a conversation that never should have occurred. This melodrama was absolutely in the realm of the surreal. Who couples a new school with a stewing pile of trash and garbage?
Did not Southborough learn a lesson with the Massachusetts DEP dropping the hammer on the town for hiding an illegal dump within the MWRA watershed ? With the old town dump also in the MWRA watershed, does that not foreshadow what can happen in future decades ? Having this dump in the watershed is a long term risk by itself. Building a new school next to the dump only ignores the real risks and possible consequences of teasing calamity. This could have been an opportunity to disentangle Southborough’s schools system from an environmental threat, but no, with the number of school grades going from 2 to 4 we would double down on the existing bet.
Could somebody just step back and see how foolish this is. Just stay away from this site, it is worrisome enough the old dump sits in the MWRA watershed.
P.S. During the presentation to the Select Board one the the experts at the meeting tried to reassure the Board this plan would be safe by pointing out the water supply to the school was going to be from the MWRA water supply. This was a bit of pretzel logic since the dump sits in the MWRA watershed. This what happens when you focus on the trees.
Carl Guyer,
146 Middle Road
[Editor’s Note: I haven’t had a chance to report yet on the presentation and discussion referred to, but you can watch it for yourself here. You can also]
