TRUTHANDTOOTH
10-18-2009, 04:43 PM
The paper ran a good wrap up story today. With a story that long, with the material so voluminous and complicated, readers should not expect everything to be absolutely complete. All the contexts cannot be provided. Highly debatable, self-serving statements by people in the story cannot be challenged or fact checked. There is no time or space for that. Although misleading statements can earn the status of "facts" if unchallenged and repeated, that's the way it has to be sometimes. Was this article intended to give Choate's side of the story with a nominal nod to opposing views? Maybe. But, dear reader, consider the following:
In June, Choate said that if the Town didn't close a portion of Old Durham Road, it would not build an environmental study center. That proved to be untrue. It also led Wallingford to believe that its public school students would study in the center and have a great educational experience. Later, Choate backed away from this.
In the story today, Headmaster Shanahan gave his slant and chastised the Council for passing on the chance to have the school dedicate 128 acres of open space worth, he said, $5 million to the Town. He gave no basis for this value and there was no challenge to it. But, Choate's estimate is undercut by some of Choate's own statements. First, 128 acres is not the correct amount of land. Choate said that it would need part of that acreage to build its facility and put in a parking lot. Next, because much of the remaining land is wet, with setbacks and the like, a lot of the remaining property could not be built on anyway.
Mr. Shanahan was also basing his estimate on something that was not true. His estimate referred to his view of value of the land, if the town bought outright all 128 acres. He said that value was what the town was passing up. But, an outright purchase was never part of the deal. Choate was only offering to not develop the land. That promise is worth a lot less than the purchase price of full ownership.
Choate's estimate of $5 million for full ownership is also inconsistent with its own values given to the Town in June. Then, in describing the benefits of the plan, Choate said that the average price the Town paid for full ownership of open space land was $25,000 per acre. The math (128 acres X $25,000) requires an estimate of $3,200,000 for full ownership and not the larger sum we read about today. But, there is no basis to suggest that buying only the promise that Choate will not develop the unused land, including some land that cannot be developed, is worth even close to that much.
Most importantly, the paper never reported the rationale for not overweighting the value of the promise to not develop the unused portion of the 128 acres.
Choate is going to invest about $15,000,000 to build an environmental study center on the basis that it needs and wants the surrounding acreage to be pristine habitat. Why pay to keep the land as pristine habitat? One could argue that in the far off future, things could change. But, closing the road now may be an extreme response to a speculation. You could argue that a credit off the purchase price is "insurance." That rings more true and maybe that should have been Choate's approach for this story that ran today.
The story in today's paper estimated the value of the boathouse to be about $450,000. But, this was more fiction than fact. Even Choate suggested that the value of the boathouse and the appraised value of the road ($260,000) were about equal. And, published reports revealed that Choate tried to market the boathouse property for about $350,000, but it never sold.
Choate should have stuck with the "gracious" approach. The ... ahem ... high road. Instead, we hear the threat that the school will have speed bumps put in. Did that have the sound of vindictiveness? Well, maybe P & Z will require, at Choate's expense, sidewalks, too.
In June, Choate said that if the Town didn't close a portion of Old Durham Road, it would not build an environmental study center. That proved to be untrue. It also led Wallingford to believe that its public school students would study in the center and have a great educational experience. Later, Choate backed away from this.
In the story today, Headmaster Shanahan gave his slant and chastised the Council for passing on the chance to have the school dedicate 128 acres of open space worth, he said, $5 million to the Town. He gave no basis for this value and there was no challenge to it. But, Choate's estimate is undercut by some of Choate's own statements. First, 128 acres is not the correct amount of land. Choate said that it would need part of that acreage to build its facility and put in a parking lot. Next, because much of the remaining land is wet, with setbacks and the like, a lot of the remaining property could not be built on anyway.
Mr. Shanahan was also basing his estimate on something that was not true. His estimate referred to his view of value of the land, if the town bought outright all 128 acres. He said that value was what the town was passing up. But, an outright purchase was never part of the deal. Choate was only offering to not develop the land. That promise is worth a lot less than the purchase price of full ownership.
Choate's estimate of $5 million for full ownership is also inconsistent with its own values given to the Town in June. Then, in describing the benefits of the plan, Choate said that the average price the Town paid for full ownership of open space land was $25,000 per acre. The math (128 acres X $25,000) requires an estimate of $3,200,000 for full ownership and not the larger sum we read about today. But, there is no basis to suggest that buying only the promise that Choate will not develop the unused land, including some land that cannot be developed, is worth even close to that much.
Most importantly, the paper never reported the rationale for not overweighting the value of the promise to not develop the unused portion of the 128 acres.
Choate is going to invest about $15,000,000 to build an environmental study center on the basis that it needs and wants the surrounding acreage to be pristine habitat. Why pay to keep the land as pristine habitat? One could argue that in the far off future, things could change. But, closing the road now may be an extreme response to a speculation. You could argue that a credit off the purchase price is "insurance." That rings more true and maybe that should have been Choate's approach for this story that ran today.
The story in today's paper estimated the value of the boathouse to be about $450,000. But, this was more fiction than fact. Even Choate suggested that the value of the boathouse and the appraised value of the road ($260,000) were about equal. And, published reports revealed that Choate tried to market the boathouse property for about $350,000, but it never sold.
Choate should have stuck with the "gracious" approach. The ... ahem ... high road. Instead, we hear the threat that the school will have speed bumps put in. Did that have the sound of vindictiveness? Well, maybe P & Z will require, at Choate's expense, sidewalks, too.