Save Cathey Road

As you may have already heard, Anderson County School District Five has obtained an option to buy 30+ acres on Cathey Road for the purpose of building a new elementary school. I had heard various people talk about it but ran across SC Sen. K Bryant's blog on this topic. I followed the link to SaveCatheyRoad.com and read the arguments against locating a school there. I encourage you to do so also. The Cathey Road site has more information regarding the situation.

I am not sure all of the reasons they state are as important or realistic as they could be. The safety concerns are the most important but until we get the current budget problems in Anderson Schools settled, I am not sure we need to build another school anyway. And that is their reason #6! Safety should be #1 when children are involved since you cannot put a price on the safety, well being and education of our children.

The argument about losing farmland would mean more to me if the area in question was predominantly used for agriculture. But I hate adding any more to the urban sprawl that has ruined many beautiful areas in America. But I live close as a crow flies from this area and I can see alot of growth happening and that will mean an increasing need for more schools.

Their reasoning that there are 37 acres available on Hwy 81 that is better suited may be true. But how much is the school district going to have to pay for this 37 acres? Not sure if it the tract for sale for $9.4 million dollars is the one they are talking about but that is one heck of a price to pay before you ever break ground. Especially if we could just expand the capabilities of our other schools as they suggest in reason #7. Sometimes throwing money at a problem is not the best way to solve it.

I see alot of good sound reasons against locating a school here and agree with alot of what is said on the anit-Cathey Rd website. So what do you think?