LETTER: Citizens Transportation Committee Members Rip Walden Woods Bus Depot Ad

To the Editor,

We were surprised to see the following statement on a recent postcard from Walden Woods titled "A Bus Depot in Walden Woods?"

An independent Citizens School Transportation Committee Report concluded that the bus depot should remain at the Concord-Carlisle Regional School campus.

This is not an accurate reflection of the CTC's conclusion nor of the current situation. CTC's report says:

The transportation department should reside in a central location that can support all the necessary functions--maintenance, administration, fueling, bus parking, etc. The current location, on the campus of CCHS, meets these criteria better than any other available site the Committee considered.

And CTC's presentation to the School Committee said:

Recognizing that the SC voted against this option (keeping the depot on the high school property) last spring, we recommend keeping transportation as close to the current location as possible and consider the town-owned landfill site the next best option.

The postcard from Walden Woods seems to ignore history and reality. 

There is no option to keep the depot at the high school; the depot has been demolished. There is no depot to keep. Further, the regional school committee, the sole legal authority over the use of the regional property, has voted against having transportation on the site. Like it or not, agree with it or not, use of the regional property for a depot is not an option. 

Walden Woods' ads have suggested the Concord School Committee has other land that could be used for a depot. They have the following parcels of land:

1. The corner of Strawberry Hill and Barretts Mill Road, adjacent to Barrett's Farm
2. The Sanborn School
3. The Ripley School 

Walden Woods seems to be suggesting these are better options for a depot than the town-owned landfill. Presumably residential, historic and environmentally sensitive sites in other parts of Concord, away from Walden Pond, are of no concern to them.

Contrary to the ads and mailings from Walden Woods, voting yes on Article 12 will result in outsourced transportation because there is no other available site in Concord.  

We understand Walden Woods is trying to garner support for their article, but we do not appreciate their misrepresentation of our position, nor the NIMBY attitude they've adopted.

Walden Woods' mission says they want to foster an ethic of environmental stewardship and social responsibility. We don't see this reflected in their advertisements and mailings. 

Sincerely,

CTC members Lisa Bergen, Abe Fisher, Louise Haldeman, Mark Hanson, Rick Anderson and Kate Damon