Tell It To George is a collection of thoughts from here and away, from people who want to get their two cents worth in, without using their names.

Ten feet from a fire hydrant sure seems like a large distance and $100 sure seems like a large fine (it's $30 in Portland).  I hope if cars parked within 10 feet of a fire hydrant are going to be fined $100, that the distance is clearly marked as a no parking zone.

Last week's issue had comments from the Wiscasset School Committee and from a teacher concerning their long running contract negotiations. It was nice to finally hear something directly instead of through rumors.

The School Board says that they have four goals in the negotiations:

1) to provide the very best education to our students

2) to settle a contract that our tax- payers can afford

3) to ensure that our employees have a competitive compensation package

4) to bring our school expenditures closer to the averages across Maine and our geographic area.

I might comment on #2 and #3 at another time.  For #4 the School Board is mainly referring to the numbers dictated by the State's Essential Programs and Services (EPS) program.  The problem is that the EPS was not originally created with budgets in mind.  It was created to ensure that all Maine schools covered the same basic minimal subject material in their K-12 curricula.  It is supposed to be the absolute minimum that a child should study as the progress to high school graduation.  Unfortunately, our legislators, instead of grappling seriously with the concepts of how to properly fund education, decided to use the EPS as a funding model.

I believe our School Board has a serious problem just with their own goals.  How do you "provide the very best education to our students" with  "expenditures closer to the averages?" To me, "very best education" means far superior to that in any other area school system.  When I moved here, it was because we had a superior school system. Now I am glad that my children have graduated already. 

Almost every day we read how American children are woefully under prepared when they graduate from high school. These aren't some mysterious, far away kids but many from our own WHS.  Just pouring huge amounts of money into the school budget will not by itself improve the students' performance on standardized tests.  Many of the best solutions begin at home, not with the schools.  However, if you think education is expensive, try ignorance!

As we near the end of the year, several observations are in order.

First, whatever happened to the court ruling on Westport Island vs. The McNamara Foundation? It is probably a ruling that even by Alabama standards is ripe for a decision.

Second, what is wrong with negotiating with the court case and the Wright property? That deal has been so screwed up, that the selectmen involved should be charged with malfeasance. There was no appraisal, no title search and no negotiations for the property. The selectmen did not even know the terms of the loan. They thought they had a 30-year mortgage. What they had was a 30- year adjustable every three years. Just brilliant!

Third, the Westport Town CMA should be fired. He has created an absolute mess of the assessments that appears to be beyond even his comprehension. His raging letter of last year, attesting to his honesty, never discussed his competency.

Third, the town of Westport Island MAY be involved in another lawsuit. The thing is, the First Selectman has apparently forgotten to tell the other selectmen or the public.

So we roll to another year with the storm clouds gathering

Send "Tell It To George" entries clearly marked (this way, we won't use your name) for the "Tell It To George" column, by mail at P.O. Box 429, Wiscasset, ME 04578.

Or hand carry them to our office on at 47 Gardiner Road (don't mail them to Gardiner Road, because they will be sent back to you by the post office); just put them in our mailbox right next to the front door.

Or, walk right in and give them to us.

Or, send them to us by E-mail, at wiscassetnewspaper@verizon.net.

Or, fax them to us at 882-4280;

Or, if you're not good at writing, leave us a voice mail on our answering machine after hours, at 207-882-6355 (speak slowly and distinctly). Please make sure your entries a r rive by noon on Tuesday for publ i cation in Thursday's issue.