Stafford residents should require the Board of Supervisors to use common sense when evaluating desires versus needs.

During these lean times, people are doing things such as making extensive repairs to aging vehicles and cutting back on extras.

During the past year, the School Board and the Board of Supervisors addressed the issue of renovations for Stafford High School. The estimated cost would have been $42 million.

However, on May 1, the supervisors (with the exception of Paul Milde and Cord Sterling) passed the Capital Improvement Program plan that included a new Stafford High School.

The new high school will cost close to $66.1 million, and that number might increase, according to some reliable sources.

This is most distressing when we have an overcrowded animal shelter that could be built on county-owned acreage for $5 million; $18 million could have been used to provide new soccer fields; and no cutbacks would have to be implemented to help nonprofit organizations such as S.E.R.V.E. and the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank.

It saddens me that while some of the supervisors enjoy the accolades for a new multimillion-dollar high school, more animals will be living in crowded conditions; the euthanasia rate will continue to escalate due to slow adoptions and space issues; fewer children will be able to participate in the soccer leagues; and less money will be provided to help feed low-income families.

I recently read this quote by C.E. Stowe: "Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done."

Please contact your supervisors and School Board members and ask them to use common sense and do things as they ought to be done.

Carol Dominy

Stafford