Concord taxpayers cannot catch a break. Declared “Another step forward for the city” by the Concord Monitor (Monitor editorial, Oct. 1, 2017), the former employment office building on South Main Street has become a nightmare for taxpayers. Here’s the history: City buys South Main Street building for $1,575,000, spends “several thousand dollars” to winterize building, spends another $2 million for underground utilities in front of the building. City agrees to: Pay $300,000 to demolish the building; sell empty lot to developer for $1,075,000; reduce impact fees by $25,000 and provide 82 parking spaces. Update: Developer wants additional $7 million to cover cost increases. City will have squandered more than $9,825,000 on a very bad real estate deal.
The Concord school committee recently raised taxes by 2.24%, spending $800,000 to hire five new administrators and is now laser-focused on getting rid of Rundlett Middle School, looking at the 100-acre Monitor property located in another school district while sitting on 64 unused acres in the city. It’s baffling to learn Concord spent $8 million to build a “community” center on Canterbury Street that cannot accommodate seniors walking in the gym three days a week (should be five days a week) and monthly senior lunches during summer months. Seniors on fixed incomes paid for this facility and should be treated as part of this “community” all year.
Middle-class working families are struggling, seniors on fixed incomes are being crushed by city council and school committee “politicians” subsidizing wealthy developers, making bad real estate deals and building bureaucratic empires.
RAPHAEL LAHOUSSE
Concord