Empty Buildings
Are Everywhere

The Randolph Selectboard keeps trying to get the state to pay for infrastructure improvements by putting a work camp in Randolph, while living with the empty real estate in town. If the board wants to do something positive, they should put their time and energy into filling the empty holes at the Branchwood property, at the corner of Main Street and Merchants Row, next to Wilson Tire, in the Gelatin building, in the buildings along Weston Street and in the former DuBois & King space on Slack Hill. Those spaces are empty or under-used now; they will be much harder to fill with a work camp here. And as if Randolph property taxes aren’t high enough now, they will rise when we have to expand the police district to deal with prisoners in town.

The tone of the Jan. 17 public meeting on the issue was negative. An unofficial show of hands was against the camp by a big margin. It was clear that the state could not make any assurances about the short or long term possibilities if they put a camp here. Why move forward on such shaky ground?

The board should stop trying to fix an issue no one else can see, and pay attention to a bigger issue that is real and visible.

Dave Crosby

Randolph

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