Eighty years ago in The Stone Cottage across from my home, Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote The Serenity Prayer. He first recited it in the Heath Union Church in Heath Center. The prayer was written in response to the rise of Nazism in Europe. It was made famous by Dr. Howard Chandler Robbins, who also summered in Heath Center, and later by Alcoholics Anonymous as a cornerstone of their recovery program.
Heath Center and its long historic heritage are under threat. Ironically, this threat is being led by a descendant of one of the many theologians who populated Heath in the summers of the early-mid 19th Century. A group of citizens now want to move the functions and culture of our community to the former school building in North Heath.
This move would be the gravest mistake our community could make. A 25,000-square-foot building is way too big for the needs of our small town of 700 people. The building and property requires extensive repairs, maintenance, and operating costs that we cannot afford. Our tax base is too small to support this. All of the minimal former and proposed uses of this building will not be happening in the foreseeable future, especially due to the coronavirus. None of them contribute any significant amount towards the operation of the building.
Heath owns two perfectly good buildings in Heath Center. They have served the civic and cultural needs of this town for over a century, during times when the population was significantly larger than it is today. There are a handful of vocal people saying these buildings are not adequate. There are many quiet voices saying these buildings are appropriate for the scale and needs of our town. The truth is we do not need more space for our town offices. Our current space can easily be rearranged to better accommodate our needs.
We have money in hand to upgrade Sawyer Hall and our Community Hall that the Selectboard is refusing to spend. They have put $15,000 allocated by Heath voters for improvement projects on hold. The $129,582 Green Communities Grant for energy efficiency improvements specifically for these buildings has also been put on hold, in hopes of redirecting the money to 18 Jacobs Road. This is contrary to the recommendations of the original Energy Advisory Committee. If we don’t use the grant for the projects as originally approved within the impending deadline, our eligibility to secure future grants will be jeopardized.
Our property tax rate is currently the sixth highest in the state. The rate for the upcoming year is certain to raise our ranking to the top five. Given our debt exclusion for the broadband project and the tightening of the state budget, our ability to raise funds for needed services is going to be severely diminished. Possible grant money for our safety complex has disappeared. Our ability to borrow money will be restricted or nonexistent. The only recourse will be to cut our already minimal services.
Our current Selectboard chair is making many decisions that are detrimental to the fabric of our community. He has eliminated the public comment period at Selectboard meetings. He is not listening to community input. His actions and inactions are made in the interest of keeping the school building viable, a building that he himself designed. Appointments to committees are made with a distinct bias for the move to Jacobs Road. He handpicked the members of the Facilities Task Force who support this bias. The report they issued was inadequately researched, full of misrepresentations, and incomplete. The chair of the Task Force did not even know there is a park and playground in Heath Center! There is no transparency in the actions of the Selectboard. This is not a reflection of democracy as we know it.
“God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed;
“Give me courage to change things which must be changed;
“And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”
Heath Elementary was a wonderful school that served us well. However, it is time to let it go and live within our means. The vital core of our community is being threatened, along with the history and values it represents. We must have the courage and wisdom to continue to keep historic Heath Center alive. It is the cornerstone of our community.
Jayne Dane has been a resident of Heath Center for 40 years.