To the editor:
I’m writing as one who grew up in Presque Isle and has returned at least once a year since I moved to Meriden, Connecticut, 42 years ago. Presque Isle is where my heart is.
When I read about the City Council’s plans for Cunningham Middle School a few months back, I was really upset. It appeared to me that the Council deliberately set the building up for deterioration and eventual destruction when they decided at least a year ago that they would not have the building heated last winter. Obviously, anyone with any knowledge about Presque Isle’s climate and anyone who has any common sense knows that if a building is not heated in the winter, deterioration will take place.
I felt that it was a deliberate decision made with that intent in mind, and I wondered at the time who would benefit financially if the building would eventually have to be destroyed. I didn’t really think that most of the citizens of Presque Isle would be receptive to the destruction of the school, so I figured that someone had an ulterior motive, and the Council was backing that motive. Who’s in whose pocket? Having just received the Dec. 6, 2006 edition of the Star-Herald, I realize that the time for the school’s destruction is evidently much closer than I had feared. If pieces of the gym floor are being sold, then I guess the building is doomed. I really find it hard to understand why this ever had to reach this point. There should have been some viable uses for the structure.
From the start, I have never understood the logistics of building a middle school on the old base, which would involve bussing students that would physically be better off if they walked to school. I certainly don’t understand how that school has become the only middle school to serve Presque Isle. As much as I hate to see the demise of Cunningham, it would certainly make more sense to me if a new middle school were built on the current site.
Presque Isle’s Council and Planning Department haven’t shown much foresight in other areas, either. For instance, consider the act of tearing down theaters and building a Lowe’s store. Was any consideration given to the lumber and hardware businesses that have been a mainstay in Presque Isle since my childhood? Lowe’s and Home Depot stores are like Wal-Mart stores — they often put local businesses out of business. Where is the loyalty to the city and citizens?
As has happened with many cities that have built malls, Presque Isle’s downtown has suffered. There used to be several stores downtown that carried high quality merchandise. There certainly are no stores, especially clothing stores, carrying high quality merchandise at the mall, although there were a few when the mall first opened. Every year when I went “home,” more stores that I looked forward to shopping at had closed.
Also, I don’t understand why Presque Isle residents have to go to Caribou or Grand Falls to attend the movies. I personally feel that if the Braden Theater were refurbished, as expensive a proposition as I understand it would be, it would be a theater in town with plenty of downtown parking that would draw people to go to the movies there. I believe that I’m correct in stating that there are Presque Isle residents who feel the same way.
I love Presque Isle. I think that it’s a city that offers a lifestyle that is great. I love reading Dick Graves’ columns about Presque Isle’s history. I wish that the City Council would take a good look at what has made Presque Isle a wonderful place to grow up and help it to continue to be so instead of working against it. There is so much potential. Why negate it?
Carol Farley Hartt
Meriden, Conn.
