Considerations

Randolph will hold an unusually important Special Town Meeting next Tuesday, Dec. 11. Two items will be on the Australian ballot, and both deserve attention.

¥ First is a proposal to add $35,000 to the amount Randolph appropriated to the White River Valley Ambulance (WRVA) when it voted its annual budget at Town Meeting.

¥ Second is a proposal to approve moving the town offices to the former Randolph Co-operative Market (the former Merrimaid building) instead of expanding and renovating the existing town offices on Summer Street.

* * *

We think it's particularly important that the WRVA receive the $35,000 being asked by the selectboard. WRVA was deliberately under-funded in last year's budget, as Randolph was the only town in the ambulance district not to appropriate the full amount asked by the service.

There were good reasons for that underpayment. Management problems needed to be pointed out in a dramatic way, and Randolph's position accomplished just that. So did the withdrawal, at the same time, by Gifford Medical Center from representation on the WRVA board.

The point was made so well that the ambulance service reorganized itself and has earned new credibility. Gifford Medical Center is back on the board. The Randolph Budget Committee and the Selectboard have recommended that the town step up to the plate and pay the balance of what was requested in March. All that's needed now is for Randolph's voters to follow suit and vote "Yes" to the appropriation of the extra $35,000.

Though WRVA is on an upward track, WRVA board president Tom Anderson stressed this week that the extra funding from Randolph is "critical."Nobody has ever questioned the excellence of WRVA's service. Now that administrative reforms are underway, it's time for Randolph to offer its full support.

* * *

The question of where Randolph's municipal offices should be located is far more complicated. This is a question that has come suddenly before the public, and whether you vote "Yes" or "No" to moving the offices to the former home of the Randolph Cooperative Market on Pleasant Street may depend on how you feel about sudden, imperfectly understood, change.

One can sympathize with those who have spent eight years planning an addition on Summer Street and feel frustrated that just as the legal problems have apparently been solved, a new proposal comes along that bypasses all that work and the expenditure of more than $100,000. Yet though current legal battles are over, there is no guarantee that new ones might arise-along with more delays. And the fact that money has already been spent on the Summer Street proposal is basically irrelevant-what counts now is which plan will cost more from here on out.

The evidence seems to indicate that moving to Pleasant Street will be somewhat less expensive than building the addition on Summer Street-though it's hard to say how much less. Perhaps a more important advantage of the Pleasant Street alternative is that construction will not have to take place in the same building where workers are trying to do their jobs. That saves money, too: as much as $83,000 is currently budgeted to moving workers around the existing building, or renting temporary space while construction proceeds.

What makes the Pleasant Street alternative most interesting is the potential impact on downtown redevelopment. The downtown would benefit by having an important building, which still looks like a factory inside and out, made attractive and serviceable, while at the same time opening a perfectly presentable building-the current town offices-for new commercial, taxable, uses. The town would be able to design its new home from the ground up for greatest efficiency on one floor-and it would end up with two good properties, not just one-and perhaps could get extra revenue by selling the old one.

Opponents of the plan worry that putting town offices into the Pleasant Street building would keep new retail stores out of it; but realistically, the town has considerable retail space already available. Really fixing up the old Merrimaids building could spark more revival and renewal. It's a close call, but this time we are going to vote for change.

Dicks folder Page 2 edit