“Why use bitter soup for healing when sweet water is everywhere?” Rumi
I love the Heath community and have lived here for the majority of 27 years. My son was born here eight years ago and my older daughter attended Heath Elementary from kindergarten to sixth grade. I have been the assistant at the lovely Heath Public Library since 2006. I am very concerned about our wonderful community’s well-being. There are a handful of my friends in Heath who are passionately devoted to the company Carnegie Arch LLC and have shown they will stop at nothing to convince town residents that we must sell our former school building to Carnegie Arch at a pittance of $250,000. It has been made to appear that this is our only option. We have heard their message loud and clear many times in The Recorder and in Heath. Now it’s time for a mom’s point of view.
I was devastated to hear of the intentions to sell our beautiful school building to a cannabis grower/distributor/retail shop, and deeply disappointed that such a divisive issue would be brought to our community. We have no idea how this will affect our tiny hilltown, and how it could compromise the relative safety and serenity we’ve enjoyed. Our growing population of senior citizens must be thought about and how this would affect them.
It also has not been considered how our children would feel about having their beloved former elementary school (which was closed less than two years ago) be sold to a cannabis company. It would be the complete opposite of what and who the building was painstakingly created for only 25 years ago. Children, indeed, would no longer be welcome or allowed. Heath kids still play on the playgrounds and courts and have their drama practices and performances there. We have an amazing collection of books at the school library and had regular hours every week last summer and spring, with the collection still available for use for the community.
The message it gives our children and teens, many alumni from Heath Elementary, must also be considered. Research I read in “The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults” by Frances Jensen shows that teens under 21 should not use marijuana, as it negatively affects and impairs their rapidly developing brains. It gives a poor message to teens when trusted adults fight for such a facility to be at their former elementary school. Our young people need to be respected and thought about.
Some of the other concerns which need to be addressed: the fact that we as a community will no longer have any usage of the building for anything ever again. As we’ve seen, we cannot fit the town’s voters in the community hall for meeting. The building task force had determined and recommended after nine months of meetings that it was best to keep the school building for town use and had made progress with plans for solar energy. The huge environmental and -energy impacts from this type of business haven’t been fully explored. Still there are many unanswered questions as to how this would actually benefit the town financially. Tom Carlson’s citizen’s group’s well-researched findings have proven that the financial gains for Heath are far less than previously touted, if present at all.
I spent many hours there as a substitute teacher, volunteer, and parent. That school was a special thing which I was honored to be a part of. I know that what made Heath Elementary so special were the staff and children. Now they are dispersed to five different schools or more. But I’ve spent a lot of time up there since it closed, and damn does it still have that special spirit. The natural beauty that surrounds it, it’s so peaceful and meditative, with wildlife flourishing.
Many of us would love the opportunity to explore other options and to consider keeping the building as an asset to our community to be used to bring us together; and have no intention of undermining the town’s historical center. We are all in healing in one form or another — -our community and my family has suffered huge losses of loved ones in the last few years. In Heath I see us supporting each other with offers of meals, kind words, and help. I ask for compassion and moves toward hope and healing rather than more hurt.
Lyra Johnson-Fuller is a resident of Heath.