I will be voting “no” on the RSU 16 Middle School expansion at this time, not because I do not support the school or elimination of portable classrooms and improved entrance security for the high school and middle school.

My reasons:

• Bad timing. Delay one fiscal year (really three months) waiting for the .16 mil rate debt on the books today to roll off so that the average mil increase for bonds would not be $40 on a $100,000 home, but $24 in Poland, $53 in Mechanic Falls and $47 in Minot.

• I object to spending $893,000 in office renovations, covered walkway and shared entry costs. The renovations offices means an additional two classrooms. I estimate a cost of $400,000 to the bill of $2.6 million for the addition. $1.2 million for a single entrance is too much money. Something could be done for less easily.

• The principal of $5.7 million, with an added interest of $1.446 million over a 15-year bond, totaling $7.2 million, is too much money for the three towns to afford. I already see yearly increases for the RSU16 operational budgets. Applying greater pressure on the cost of education will negatively impact the children in the classroom., which nobody wants.

Minor tweaks to timing and design could bring the costs down more than $1.2 million overall. With 0.16 rolling off the tax rate from current debt payments and a 20 percent reduction in total cost would make Poland mil increase to today’s tax rate approximately a 0.16 mil increase ($16/$100,000 home), instead of 0.40 mil ($40/$100,000 home).

Stephen Robinson, Poland