On Monday, Steven Lake carried two guns and a knife into his estranged wife’s house in Dexter, where he shot and killed her, their children and then himself in a burst of domestic violence.

On Tuesday, knowing full well of the Dexter crime, by a margin of 708 to 546 Rumford voters rejected the town’s annual donation — $4,000 — to support Safe Voices.

The mission of this agency, formerly known as the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project, is to support and empower people affected by domestic violence in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties — including dozens of people in Rumford — through education, outreach and a 24-hour emergency hot line.

At the same meeting, voters approved $205,277 in funding for other social service agencies, including the Chisholm Ski Club, River Valley Healthy Communities and Western Maine Transportation, so townspeople clearly recognize and support community agencies.

Which makes spurning the Safe Voices funding request in the shadow of the Dexter murders not just curious, it’s “crazy,” according to Rumford Police Chief Stacy Carter.

He is right.

It’s not like the town is immune from domestic violence crimes.

In 2009, Rumford police responded to 66 domestic violence calls. Last year, the department responded to 77 calls, and officers are on pace to respond to that many calls again this year, including separate domestic violence calls that resulted in two arrests for assault on Wednesday.

Victims of these crimes rely on Safe Voices for help, and Safe Voices relies on community support for its funding.

According to Safe Voices Executive Director Jane Morrison, in the aftermath of the Dexter crime and another fatal domestic violence assault in Winslow last week, the agency has been flooded with calls from victims seeking help. The state’s shelters for victims of domestic violence are full, and there is no end in sight.

We urge the town of Rumford, through its newly elected Board of Selectmen, to set this error right.

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At 11:35 a.m. on Wednesday, Auburn School Committee Chairman David Das sent a press release to the Sun Journal announcing that at its meeting scheduled to start at 7 p.m. that night, the committee “unanimously voted to appoint Mrs. Katherine Grondin as the new superintendent of the Auburn School Department.”

With all respect to Mr. Das, how could he possibly know more than seven hours before the committee convened that its vote would be unanimous?

He couldn’t.

We know the committee had reached consensus on the hire because outgoing Superintendent Tom Morrill said as much on June 10. But, that’s not what Mr. Das’ public statement declared.

He declared a pre-planned, orchestrated vote. Jeers to that.

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In April, the Auburn School Department announced it would seek grant funding to aid the purchase of $200,000 worth of iPad 2s for kindergartners, sparing taxpayers the full cost of the equipment for this controversial program.

On Wednesday, the district announced that it doesn’t have the years and years worth of empirical data it needs to apply for grant funding, so the $228,000 cost to buy 409 Apple tablets, plus headphones, cases and technology support, will come entirely from the district’s general fund.

Say what?

After taxpayers witnessed the elimination of nine teaching positions during the budget-cutting process?

Jeers to the Auburn School Department for the outrageous backpedal.

We understand educators are excited about the iPad 2 potential, but at what cost?

Living, breathing teachers?

When Auburn resident George Mathews voted against the Auburn school budget, he predicted administrators had no intention of seeking grant funding but would go ahead and buy the iPad 2s and “decide how to pay for them later.”

“That doesn’t make much sense,” Mathews said.

He was right.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.