Poland school priorities brought defeat of levy

Poland school priorities brought defeat of levy
EDITOR:
The Poland Township residents had two school levies on the ballot in November. One was a 1-mill, five-year renewal levy for permanent improvements which was passed and the other was a 3.9-mill, 5 year additional tax levy for emergency needs, which failed. If the 1-mill renewal had been retired, I'm sure the 3.9 mill would have past. There are some major concerns about why the 3.9-mill was needed.
Let us look at a few of the concerns. I agree that new windows, doors and air-conditioning are needed. What weren't needed are the facades, (false roof to hide the air conditioners and the pillars). Not too many residents attended the VISION meetings at the Poland Library held by Poland Village. Had you, you would have seen that these facades are exactly what was proposed by the village for all their buildings at the property owner and taxpayers' expense. Had the school board stayed within their 1-mill permanent improvements levy fund, they would not have had to take money from the general fund to pay for these improvements. If the money would have stayed in the general fund, our students would have enough books and not been sharing books while the book order lay on Dr. Zorn's desk for years. It seems Dr. Zorn is more interested in looks than books.
Now we have threats, punishment and blackmail to pass a 6.9-mill emergency levy. Do you really want your money going into facades?
We need an independent auditor to go over the books and find out how the money is being misspent. Next we need to vote the board members out of office and get a superintendent who is interested in books and not looks. Vote no on the 6.9-mill school levy.
CONNIE COLOUTES
Poland
Gambling should be a matter of personal choice
EDITOR:
This is in response to a Nov. 29 letter written by a priest in opposition to gambling.
I resent him (or anyone) telling me how I can spend my money, especially since I have gone to bingo at St. Brendan's and also bought pull tabs there. That is gambling, albeit legalized, for whatever reason the revenue is spent.
His reference to the Scripture, "Man cannot serve God and money" is wrong. It is "Man cannot serve God and mammon." The definition of mammon being material wealth having a debasing influence. The definition of debase is to lower in character, quality or value. Therefore if gaming machines are debasing, so is bingo.
Jesus threw the money changer from the church. While bingo is not in the church, it is on church property, which should be considered holy.
I do not believe playing bingo or gaming lowers my character, quality, or value as a human being, provided it is not done in excess. Nothing in life should be done in excess. Excess should be determined by the individual in what he or she is doing, whether it be eating, gambling, etc.
Is the church afraid of losing money from bingo sales to gaming machines? Not everyone likes to play bingo. We just want our freedom of choice. We want gaming machines in the state of Ohio as opposed to having to go to another state to play and giving our money to them. Why not keep the money at home? If you are concerned about gamblers, why not open a counseling service for gamblers? The costs can be defrayed with bingo revenue.
As to Las Vegas legalizing prostitution, it was done to protect innocent people from contracting sexually transmitted diseases, not because it was morally right in the sense of condoning prostitution.
RHONDA J. ADAIR
Youngstown