To the editor:

Last week's Bristol Phoenix contained a completely erroneous contribution in their “Speakout” section regarding the wetlands at the current Mount Hope High School location, and I would like to correct those false statements.

First of all, I personally visited Mount Hope High School last week and walked all of the grounds from the Western edge of the property abutting Naomi St. to the Eastern edge abutting the custodial staff parking area, taking numerous photos and submitting them to the Phoenix. What I discovered was the complete opposite of "bone dry", as the Speakout caller asserted, instead finding numerous locations of ankle deep standing water and mud, numerous locations of two-foot-high mold stains on the exterior classroom walls just east of the gymnasium, and custodial staff running fans in the windows to dry out classrooms which had water intrusion from a recent rainstorm. The athletic fields that recently received a multi million dollar renovation due to constant flooding were virtually unusable and even the area just north of the tennis courts which sits at one of the highest points on the property had ankle deep standing water.

Secondly, the Speakout caller questioned "why is my house right there on Chestnut Street?” My answer is because my house was built in 1972, long before the mid 1980s to early 1990s when the town allowed other homes and businesses to be built on what is basically a swamp, and has exacerbated flooding problems both at the high school property and surrounding neighborhoods.

The bottom line is that the current high school was built on a swamp, and a creek (more often a river) flows directly under the building, making the current location completely unsuitable for constructing a small storage shed, never mind a large high school. Town and school leaders would be very wise to raze the present high school, return the land to its natural state, and build a new high school at a location that will not be subject to flooding for generations to come.

Mike Proto
245 Chestnut St.
Bristol