As a long-time Monmouth resident who attended the June 25 town meeting to determine the school budget, I found it deeply offensive that the school board’s solution to the economic crisis of the fixed income residents is to “apply for state aid.”

I find it terribly insensitive for them to have such an attitude.

Many senior citizens have lived all or most of their lives in Monmouth, and planned to live out their final years here. But with the ever-rising costs of fuel, food and medical expenses, and after last year’s tax revaluation, staying in Monmouth is now a hope, rather than a plan.

Many of us have small homes on one of the lakes in Monmouth. We have had those homes for decades, or life. They were purchased when lakefront property did not have an absurd tax valuation, or the expectation to rise to the value that those properties have now.

Must we be forced to sell our life-long homes to pay the ever-increasing taxes?

As proud as we are of the Monmouth school system, the school board and its many supporters must realize that many of us just cannot afford the ever-increasing budget requests.

Paul Flohn, Monmouth