Try explaining loss of Lyon to children

To the Editor,

How often do we talk with our children or grandchildren asking their opinions on issues that effect the future?

Several months ago, my 10-yearold grandson asked some questions regarding the ‘old’ Dana Lyon School and the prospect that it would be demolished and a drug store would be built. He asked “why”?

The only answer I could give was the school was sold to developers who said they were going to convert it into an apartment building but then decided ti was too expensive to convert so were going to sell it to Eckerd’s to build a drug store.

He said that tearing down the school would be terrible; that his dad had gone to that school; his mother had gone to that school; and that his bother and gone to that school; and, he was being cheated by not being able to go to that school. He also said that the “old” school was better than his “new” school. (What he didn’t know was that two granddad’s and one grandma also went to that school.)

That conversation stuck with me and I must say, in my opinion, he was right. He had heard adult conversations that Dana L. Lyon could have been utilized for a school for many years to come. The main “reason” for closure seemed to be “it isn’t handicapped accessible.” Have you ever seen an elevator built on the outside of a building; or one built in the very center of a building; or in a location I can’t comprehend but contractors do amazing renovations at surprisingly less cost than new construction.

Can the children count on us? Maybe our youth have a vision of their future and history that we need to embrace? Will they be able to see the Dana L. Lyon in their future? Will they see the results of a wrecking ball, a pile of rubble, a drug store, a parking lot, a strip mall, or an adult book store?

The final chapter of the Dana L. Lyon will be decided in the near future. Demolition will be discussed at the village board meeting on December 12, 2006 at 6 p.m. in the Village Municipal Building. Please be there.

Dorothy Hobbs Bath