The headline story in The Alpena News on Monday, Sept. 8th, was about improvementsthe city is making to address storm runoff, improve natural habitats and protect the water quality of Lake Huron. The improvements include dune restoration, a pollinator garden… and a 1,000-square-foot rain garden. A public statement describes rain gardens as “green stormwater infrastructure.” The statement went on to say, “Rain gardens can reduce the load on underground storm sewers, prolonging the life of these systems, and contribute to cleaner drinking water.”

This is what could have been on the High School campus. An opportunity for 3,700 APS students to have hands-on learning in creating and maintaining a rain garden.

Good for our students, good for the health of our infrastructure and best of all, good for the quality of our drinking water.

It’s still difficult to comprehend why 4 of 7 school board members decided to vote down this opportunity. APS was the recipient of a grant that would have 100% funded the construction of a rain garden on the high school campus. The grant would also have paid for needed drainage pipes.

Sarah Costain, Monica Dziesinski, Eric Lawson and AJ MacArthur voted no. Their reasons?

~ Monica Dziesinski was concerned about the cost of mulch.

~ Sarah Costain said she did 80 hours of research on rain gardens and still concluded a “no” vote was the right way to go.

~ AJ MacArthur pretended he was an engineer and said the engineers who evaluated the project were wrong. It was revealed MacArthur was actually 100% wrong in all his conclusions. Turns out pretending you are an engineer does not make you an engineer.

~ Lawson said nothing, except “no.”

I’m wondering. Is anyone else wondering? Why are these people on our school board?

LINDA AYRES

Alpena