I learned recently that the new hospital is requesting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

This made me quite angry, since at best that is completely misleading and at worst totally false. Currently, we have two hospitals in the hearts of two central Maine cities, both providing multiple ways (foot, bicycle, etc.) for people in those towns to access the hospitals.

The new hospital is nowhere near any population center, forcing everyone to drive long distances to access the hospital. Whatever savings the hospital claims to come from future energy use in the building easily will be offset by the increased energy used by all the people driving miles and miles to access the hospital.

Increased cost to the people in energy used is not part of the LEED certification, however, just like the increased cost to the people in constructing the new building was not part of the argument for its creation.

We, the people, spent millions of dollars in taxes to help construct that new building and the new access to I-95. How many children could have received quality child care for those millions of dollars?

We’ll never know, because our “leaders” think spending millions of tax dollars so that we can use more resources accessing a hospital is better than spending millions of tax dollars on children.

MacGregor Stocco, Belgrade