The heart of the matter

Posted 8/21/12

If it’s true that a school is the heart of a community, someone ripped our heart out more than a decade ago. This being a democracy, we may have no one to blame but ourselves. But blame is not the …

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The heart of the matter

Posted

If it’s true that a school is the heart of a community, someone ripped our heart out more than a decade ago. This being a democracy, we may have no one to blame but ourselves. But blame is not the answer—action is.

Just what the school board was thinking would happen to the Narrowsburg building when it voted to merge school districts and build a new school in Lake Huntington years ago is a matter for history and the record. The term “fiscally responsible” is often heard as the excuse for many bad decisions. Overlarge prisons are built in other communities as profit centers for towns too unimaginative to make better use of their resources. They prefer to rely on the problems of others to provide for their needs.

But I digress. As we struggled to balance the needs of our community with its limitations, two options appeared after the fact of the loss of our school. Two options, almost simultaneously, after a long time without any. One was to host a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in the building that sits like a beacon on the hill overlooking the hamlet of Narrowsburg. Another was to use the former school as a community center that would serve the needs of our youthful as well as our aging residents.

The rehab facility would import many of its clients from other communities and derive its profits from federal and state programs. Its owners have found that to be a lucrative venture in Florida.

The community center proposed by the Weiden family is currently privately funded by a family with a long, deep and responsible connection to the community. They foresee the building that once educated generations of residents as a resource for future generations. Their mission statement sees the school as “a multi-use facility that supports the arts, agriculture and food, municipal needs, fitness, wellness, recreation and tourism, with flexible uses for special events.” Remember EagleFest?

Both of these uses will benefit the town financially by getting the tax revenue rolling again. Whether that revenue will reduce the onerous tax bills of residents is unknown. We already struggle under a heavy burden. It’s unlikely to get worse.

Both will likely keep Main Street businesses and Peck’s Plaza thriving, or at least alive during the lean winter months. Both will employ workers who may decide to live nearby if they can afford it.

I have no doubt that some businesses and residents will make good on their promises to flee if the rehab facility is realized on Bridge Street. The “jewel” of the Delaware Valley that is Narrowsburg may not sparkle so brightly. Its antique shops and destination restaurants may be replaced by other businesses that cater to different needs and sensibilities. In the 15 years we have owned a home in this community, many things have changed, most for the better.

The loss of the school meant our town was no longer the obvious choice for families with young children. Neighbors moved away, other neighbors moved in. The playground in the Flats goes unused more often these days. But for those of us whose children have grown and scattered, the town provides for our needs beautifully. Give us an arts center, a yoga studio, coffee shop, liquor store, furniture store, sundry gift shops along with a new fruit and vegetable stand and what more do we need?

I haven’t heard anyone say that the rehab facility is unnecessary or objectionable in its purpose. We may live in an idyllic natural environment, but we are not blind to worldly problems. The point seems to be that the Weiden family vision of a community center is the better substitute for the heart of a community. Put the rehab center where it is appropriate to the town’s zoning. Don’t rip our heart out all over again.

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