To the editor:

I recently read in the SDN that Sidney High School is planning to spend an estimated $750,000 to renovate the auditorium and the funds will “be provided by COVID-19 money through a federal grant.” WHAT! I had to reread the article to see if I misread it, but I hadn’t. Has anyone one else questioned why Covid-19 funds would be available to renovate a school auditorium? How many other communities in America are doing all sorts of pet projects because they have found an avenue to free money? It would seem only logical to me that Covid-19 funds would be restricted to actual Covid-19 expenses and any excess money kept in reserve or given back.

Dr. Fauci has warned of new and more contagious and deadly viruses on the horizon. In the last 14 days there have been over a million new cases in the US. China currently has a two year high in new cases with multiple millions of people in lockdown. Does that sound like Covid is gone? Will this administration then recklessly borrow a couple more trillion with no way to ever pay it back, and will that, too, will be used for even more non-Covid-19 projects like this? Our national debt right now, as I write this, is over $30.4 trillion dollars. To repay this in its entirety now –today – every man, woman, and child in America would have to cough up $91,420 each!! So, a family of four would owe $365,680 — a total impossibility yet the spending continues. This keeps me awake at night thinking of our children and grandchildren who are inheriting this crushing debt brought on by selfish greed and reckless spending.

Does the school need a renovation? Maybe. We all have projects we’d like to do but we need to first decide if we can afford it, a perspective that rarely is ever is considered in Washington. If this renovation project is so critical, why wasn’t the private sector or proud alumni asked to fund it? Just because a government agency gives a green light to spend money like this, is it morally right to do so knowing its saddling future generations with the burden of this enormous, unsustainable debt that will eventually destroy America? I my opinion, spending Covid-19 money on a renovation like this is simply wrong on all counts.

Bonnie Sturm

Sidney