To the Editor:

After reading many letters written by Westerlo residents, pertaining to the renovation and cost of the old Westerlo school, I would like to bring the good people of Westerlo back to a March 2, 2010 town meeting, when a petition to have the people of Westerlo vote on buying the school was given to attorney Aline Galgay.

She took it and threw it across two tables at me; how unprofessional. I guess it wasn’t going her way.

I believe she did her best denying the Helderberg Christian School a chance to bid on buying the school. But, in the long run, the Helderberg Christian School was the winner by acquiring St. John’s Church in East Berne, which is a big cost savings to run.

At this time, I had two very intelligent men look at the school at different times and came up with a figure of $500,000 for renovations — the same as I had figures; that’s without removing the asbestos.

I think if attorney Galgay really wanted Westerlo residents to know the actual cost, she would have had the town board hire an engineer; if an engineer had assessed the cost our residents never would have voted to buy the school.

So, without this information and sentimental feelings and grant money, it was voted to buy the school, instead of using the grant money to modify our old town hall.

I believe a new hall could be built for half the cost of renovation and we would know the actual cost by bidding the plans out.

Jack Milner

Westerlo

Editor’s note: Jack Milner, a Republican, was a Westerlo town councilman from 2009 to 2011.