Reader says Valley Construction will create a Mass Exodus from Benjamin Franklin Middle School
Based on the statement made by the Board of Ed. president at one of the meetings, you really have to wonder where her( and the board’s) head is at. If I had a child in BF, and this goes thru, I would be looking to transfer.
If the BOE can be so ignorant in saying this and doing this about BF. What about the Planning Board and Council? Does anyone in power have any sense? More importantly will this town be saved from Valley?
We have to believe that this absurd 2X over expansion will not happen? Then what more years of 1 3/4, 1 5/8, or 1 1/2 expansion plans? God save us?
Transfer to where? During the last expansion or modernization my daughter went to BF and Valley pretty much went along with what the residents wanted,so why do the naysayers blow everything out of proportion.
Primarily because this time Valley’s request is out of proportion. How do any of these kid’s benefit from this ?
Could it be because of the gross contempt with which Valley has treated residents throughout the current process? Merely allowing their attorney to behave so dismissively and arrogantly, acting as if it were a murder trial, would have been enough to display their attitude, but it has gone a lot deeper.
I commuted through the 11 Times Square construction site for a few years, and through the WTC site before that.
I can’t imagine how or why the construction at Valley is going to be that disruptive to the surrounding area. Certain phases of it will be, sure. But it will not be a constant 24 hour jackhammering, blasting and welding fiasco for 6 years. Most of the project will be inside work to which the neighbors, hospital workers and patients will be oblivious.
I have no dog in this fight. I live about a mile away from Valley. I like that we have a nice hospital close by, though. Hopefully some kind of compromise can be made. Some of the residents seem to hold no quarter. They want no change at all, and defend their position with hysterical melodramatics that undermine their credibility.
I went to GRHS while the HS itself was under renovation. We had classes in trailers, there were workmen everywhere, etc. Its life. Were there times it was a pain or a distraction? Sure. Will there be days when the Valley construction is a pain for BF families, yes.
But people will not move schools because a little real life might come too close.
That having been said #3 is right on about the gross contempt. I want to support the hospital but Valley’s behavior makes it really hard to support.
Some of the residents may not want anything because Valley has not been willing to compromise on their plan. It’s change the Master Plan to meet our needs or else. Most would take a modernize approach.
Six plus years worth when it’s not really necessary ? I’m guessing your age, but I would say these kids will have a lot more distraction than you did.
When people mention a “compromise” approach from Valley, what are the neighbors truly expecting? I would love to know the exact points they would agree too, as I wonder would anything Valley present be acceptable by the neighbors?
It is Valley, not the residents that is being unreasonable. The people who live near Valley do not have a problem with modernizing the hospital, and most are ok with some expansion (even though they were told during the last expansion that there would be no more expansions). Valley is asking for a 9 story building in the middle of a residential neighborhood that will take 6 years to complete. Would you really be ok with that if it were near your home and kid’s school?
#4: The only person guilty of “hysterical melodrama” is Valley’s lawyer, Mr. Drill. Valley opponents have actually done their homework. We know what this project will cost residents (a lot), and the permanent damage it will do to our village. Valley’s behavior has been unforgivable. By the way, the 6 years everyone is talking about for construction?—that’s only Phase I —everyone is forgetting about the step after that
Everything that the “experts” attempted to address, and rather unsuccessfully I might add. Traffic, infrastructure, BF students, is it really needed, etc.
Almost 30 years ago Valley was told that they had reached their max on their current site. They have chosen to ignore that and have had Two more expansions. They, have had ample time to develop a business plan that would allow them to modernize this facility while expanding in other areas. Yet, they chose to develop their Renewal plan and then when that got derailed by the Village Council and CRR this current plan is their attempt at compromise without taking a foot off the bulk of the building. Who is kidding who? They have shown contempt for the residents of this town without paying a dime in taxes. Yet, there are people in This town that still think the residents are the unreasonable ones. The residents have spent countless hours siting in boring meetings, being ridiculed and told to keep silent and also they have spent more than $100,000 fighting this. It is time for the planning board to do the right thing and finally turn Valley down.