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The responsibility for this waste of time and money is with the BoE. They controlled <br /> the middle school project and they controlled the negotiations from start to finish. In spite of <br /> this, they have only had to pay a small proportion of the cost. The project engineers, <br /> Greenhorne and O'Mara and the town of Carrboro seem to have paid the lion's share. In the <br /> end, it is the taxpayer who will pick up the tab. Sadly, our schools administrators are a very <br /> litigious bunch. This is not an isolated incident. They invite one law suit after another by <br /> trampling on people's rights. <br /> In addition to the quantifiable costs, cases such as ours waste an enormous amount of <br /> time because so many people get involved. My wife and I have spent over 300 hours fighting <br /> this case, which made 1993 a miserable year for us. What is worse, our legal remedies provide <br /> no compensation for the time we spent or the suffering we were subjected to. I was quite <br /> amazed by the number of people who have been directly involved in this case and compiled the <br /> attached list for your information. You could contact some of these people to get an <br /> alternative view of these events. In my opinion, the district administration displayed a <br /> dangerous combination of arrogance and poor management skills that led to a waste of over <br /> $75,000 on what should have been a very minor problem. Naturally, I began to wonder how <br /> well they were managing their main task of educating our children. So far, I have found very <br /> little to reassure me. Costs are escalating, academic standards are falling and the community is <br /> becoming increasingly divided on school issues. <br /> Finally, I am sending a copy of this letter to Rolland Wrenn. She is the only media <br /> person who understood how stressful an attack on one's property can be. A violent personal <br /> assault is a terrible thing but it is usually over very quickly. Our problem just went on and on. <br /> The flooding incidents increased in severity as the months went by and nobody seemed to care. <br /> We really appreciated the column that Rolland wrote. It helped us to keep going when the <br /> situation seemed hopeless. <br /> Sincerely, <br /> Peter H. Morcombe, Carrboro. <br /> CC: Rolland Wrenn <br />