How to finance the LASD stadium

Editor:

I attended another school board meeting Monday, November 4, 2013. I must say, I was impressed. Several fine ideas have been presented by some of the board members and the citizens.

As everyone was able to read in the TIMES NEWS, there is a 'fund balance' of 13 million dollars!

Now, this 'fund balance' has been mentioned before and Monday evening it was mentioned that the balance is 'way up there'...however, it took quite some time before the amount was finally given and we weren't told, but I guess it must be investments growing for us.

Someone suggested using 5 million of the fund balance for the super stadium, and the rest toward the buildings. Someone else suggested using the 13 million for the buildings so 'we, the taxpayers' would not need to borrow and pay the higher price of all the work that needs to be done.

Having used the fund balance for the buildings, we could then have fund raisers to build the stadium, the way Pool Pals did for the swimming pool.

Now, THAT was an even better suggestion! No stadium debt for 'we, the taxpayers'!

Mr. John Finnegan was the first one to make any common sense in all of this, and I'm sorry, I do not remember all of his words, but he told us to get on with it and invest in our schools.

I came away from that meeting with a better feeling about the whole mess than I have had in a long time. Perhaps there's hope for Lehighton, yet.

And so, yes, I would be for the new stadium, IF it could be handled the way the swimming pool was done, thereby allowing us to use the 13 million 'fund balance' plus a smaller-in-debt amount for the necessary renovations, which really should have been maintained over the years instead of being allowed to pile up, as it has been.

We can only hope the right decision will be made for us.

Ruthann Schlecht

Lehighton