Schools plan Feb. 11 Town Meeting for building project request
Published on October 24th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - The School Department plans to call a Special Town Meeting for Feb. 11 to ask townspeople for the exact dollar value needed to complete the school building project. No one knows the cost yet. That’s part of the reason for waiting.
Selectmen voted 3-2 on Oct. 16 not to call a Town Meeting in December to request another $5 million-plus to finish the schools. Only about $3 million more can be reimbursed at the 63 percent state School Building Assistance rate due to a per square foot cost ceiling, but the School Department plans to file for waivers to increase the reimbursable amount. Estimates of the remaining work were due by early November. The School Department wanted to move quickly once the figures were in to begin work at Robin Hood by June 30, 2002, the cutoff date to qualify for reimbursement. But Selectmen did not like the idea of calling a Town Meeting around Christmas when people are either on vacation or busy.
South School opened last September. The new Central School is around 90 percent complete. To receive the 63 percent state reimbursement for any portion of Robin Hood construction, work must begin by June 2002. Colonial Park work must begin by June 2003 to qualify.
Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello asked the schools to estimate their request and include it in the Oct. 29 Town Meeting. But the School Committee and School Building Committee had agreed that they would only ask for money one more time. Underestimating would mean they would have to come back for more. Overestimating could lose votes and was just bad accounting, members argued.
Construction costs won’t be firm until late January. At an Oct. 18 Building Committee meeting, the Committee decided to aim for a Special Town Meeting in February.
“We won’t be estimating; we’ll have the real numbers,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Connelly.
The design phase for Robin Hood and Colonial Park is ongoing. Drainage issues have complicated matters, but Connelly is confident that the schools will go out to bid in December. Bids will be opened in early January and accepted by late January, Connelly said.
The Conservation Commission rescheduled an Oct. 17 hearing about Colonial Park to Nov. 7. A ruling about what the Wetlands Protection Act says about Colonial Park land is an issue of money as well as time. If a section of land is considered “isolated land subject to flooding,” the required work could run as high as $400,000. And the timing of municipal drainage work around Robin Hood School may also affect the bottom line significantly.
Even with all these variables Connelly predicts only a 30 day delay. The School Department has to wait until the money is appropriated in February before executing the contract. But this happy ending rests on two large assumptions: one, that no townwide ballot vote is necessary to increase the debt exclusion override amount (or if it is, the process moves quickly and the townspeople vote approval) and, two, that a February Town Meeting votes approval of the $5-plus-who-knows-what million.
Connelly thinks the Department of Revenue (DOR) will not require a new vote if the scope of the project does not change. The DOR issued a letter to Stoneham saying that no vote was necessary for the additional $5 million request. However, if Stoneham needs even more, the schools must again ask DOR.
“But this is the same project as when we started,” Connelly said. For that same reason, he believes the people of Stoneham are still behind the project.
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