Letters to Artvoice

Schoolhouse Crock

Dear Editor,

If there is NO family support group in the home to assist and encourage the child, no amount of money thrown at the schools, teachers or equipment will do a damn thing to ensure the child comes out of the system with a viable education.

I believe the Asian population has proven this fact beyond contest.

Case in point: Asian children (Cambodia, Laos, VietNam etc.) arrive in this country with minimal education. Odds are, their parents and grandparents have even less.

They attend the same downtrodden public schools and yet within five years these kids are at the top not only of their class but of the entire Buffalo Public School System.

Why?? Because the entire family participates in the child’s learning AFTER the school day ends.

The complainers and whiners should begin with the person they see in the mirror before pointing a finger of blame for their child’s poor education.

Rich McCarthy

Buffalo

Artvoice,

I seldom read your periodical, and when I do, it is basically for comic relief. I find that many of your “investigative” stories or “opinions” to be a bunch of left-wing shit. Having said that, recently a colleague of mine suggested that I read the Dec. 1 cover story “Buffalo Schools: Sleeping Giant or Giant Mess?” by Jamie Moses and Peter Koch. I found this article to be well written, investigated and balanced (I guess you folks, like Fox News, can do it if you try!). Please pass on my “job well done” to Jamie and Peter. They perhaps have a chance to go beyond Buffalo.

It is amazing to me that in a town that weeps for months over an inbred county budget fiasco; that debates a necessary and “simple” bridge design for mega years and has made a vast number of “consultants” rich over trying to decide on what the waterfront will be when it grows up, that something as large and critical as this Buffalo schools building project gets little or no attention.

For those involved in construction, this particular situation has been brewing for a long time, and I am awed that it was unnoticed, unchallanged and unmitigated.

Hopefully, to Artvoice’s credit and initiative, the local news media, the state comptroller’s office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will challenge the appropriate folks for answers and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law if found criminal.

According to one school board member interviewed in the article, we have a Buffalo school board that writes a contract whereby through the state they release funds of $300,000,000 to the contractor, Ciminelli Construction, and no one knows what interest this is huge sum of money is drawing? Or who gets it?

By my math, a 4.5 percent straight interest—which I believe you can get through a short-term market vehicle, if not better— would produce about $37,000 a day. I think I might want to know where that money is if it was my money. Oh yeah, I forgot, it is my money—I pay taxes. Who in their right mind would approve a fixed-rate construction contract when it comes to unions, many moving parts and “construction phases,” and more importantly, crystal balling labor, material and equipment costs years ahead?

I hope at some point that Steve Rollins gets subpoenaed—that will get us to the bottom of this!

C. Tharsher

[Ed. note: Steve Rollins was the construction expert the school board voted to hire, only to be threatened with a lawsuit by Ciminelli Construction if they brought him on board.]

Fighting NYPA

Artvoice,

Please, please, please do something to stop the county from selling bonds against the Power Authority settlement. I am sure that your series exposing the inequity of the original offer helped this become a reality. But rather than take advantage of the opportunity to have a constant revenue stream, they are talking about mortgaging future income for short term gain. These are some of the same players who wasted the tobacco settlement proceeds and it will result in the same outcome. You have been right on top of this story—please stay with it to the end

Thanks,

Karen Leeds

Buffalo

Dear Editor,

Go Artvoice!

Congratulations for bringing the Power Authority Settlement story to the forefront and keeping it there.

Maybe Artvoice should be nominated for the Buffalo Snooze Citizen of the Year Award...

Mary L. Simpson

Buffalo

CORRECTION

In the December 1 cover story [“Buffalo Schools: Sleeping Giant or Giant Mess?”], Steve Rollins was inaccurately identified as an employee of Centerstone Development. He is actually President and CEO of Rollins Construction Management, Inc. Also, it was incorrectly stated that Ralph Hernandez brought an envelope containing correspondences to Artvoice. After AV contacted Hernandez about the project, he sent the correspondences via a third party.