A quick note to the B2 community that there will be a series of Q&A sessions about the Wellington School Project this week. The most important of these is on Tuesday evening, May 19, at 7:00 PM in the Chenery Middle School Auditorium, when a town-wide informational forum on the Wellington will be held. The program includes officials from both the School Dept. and Town, as well as the State to answer questions about the Wellington project.
Speakers include:
- Katherine Craven Executive Director, Massachusetts School Building Authority
- Pat Aubin Superintendent of Schools
- Pat Brusch Member, Wellington Building Committee
- Mark Haley Chair, Wellington Building Committee
- Ralph Jones Belmont Selectman
- Jonathan Levi Levi/Burt Hill, New Wellington Architect *
- Ann Rittenburg Chair, School Committee
- Amy Wagner Principal, Wellington Elementary School
- Floyd Carman Town Treasurer
Also, there will be information sessions concerning relocation plans for Wellington Students on Monday (Butler) and Wednesday (Burbank) mornings at 9:00 AM. School Committee and School Administration officials will be available to answer questions about how and where Wellington students will be accommodated during the construction period.
It seems like a growing chorus of anti-debt exclusion voters are citing a recent letter to the editor in the BCH by a Belmont resident Ed Kazanjian who is an Educational Facility planner. His letter is well written and certainly sums up much of the frustration many voters in Town have regarding select groups who have done irreparable harm to the Town with their constant lawsuits.
Hopefully tonight's meeting will address many of his concerns related specifically to the Wellington design and what he sees as flaws. He hasn't changed my mind on supporting the override because he doesn't mention the potential cost of not passing this override which among other things could include less or no state aid, higher interest rates on the borrowed money, and higher labor costs. Even so if he has reasonable changes then every effort should be made to protect the taxpayers investment in the new School. I will venture a guess that in the future every School will be built off a State template and these issues will go away but for now if small changes can be made without altering the State money and timeline then we should embrace them.
PJ
Hey PJ. Just back from the community-wide meeting. There was a lot of discussion from MSBA and others that this money is here now, but will not be in the future — and that continuing declines in state sales tax revenue mean a likely moratorium on further MSBA funding sometime in the next decade. Long and short: its now or never, and the economic slump makes this a good time to go out to bid.
Given any large project – or change of any type, really – there are always going to be plausible arguments, like Ed's, why this isn't the time, or why the change will be bad, not good or why everything could go wrong, not right, and how if we'd just been more forward thinking or prudent or thrifty at some indeterminate point in the past we could have avoided the whole mess. It doesn't mean those arguments are right — just that someone's always gonna be able to make them. Ed was at the meeting and asked very sensible and respectful questions, for the most part, which were answered in a very thorough manner.There does get to be a point, though, where you just have to make a decision and stop second guessing. Re: cost reductions, as was pointed out: the money that has been budgeted is based on very conservative estimates. The Chenery came on ahead of schedule and under cost by about $600k. Nobody's promising the same with the Wellington, but I think people would love to return money to the town at the end of this. Finally, MSBA pointed out that bids are coming in significantly lower than expected these days, so we could see a big reduction in cost right off the bat if we can go to bid with this project in the fall, as planned. As with any construction project, there gets to be a point where you can be penny wise and pound foolish. As an example: we're going to pay more for boilers because they're super efficient and will pay for themselves in around 8 years, even with today's energy prices.Should prices spike, the ROI gets less. In the search for savings, you could look at that and say “hey, we can get boilers for less and save money!” except that it costs us money in the long run. Just a factoid: the new Wellington, it is estimated, will save Belmont $80,000 A YEAR in energy costs. For those of you who have been following our current budget crisis, that's between 1 and 2 full time teaching positions that we're wasting on a century old building will failing HVAC, structural problems and insufficient insulation. Vote YES on Wellington!
Hey PJ. Just back from the community-wide meeting. There was a lot of discussion from MSBA and others that this money is here now, but will not be in the future — and that continuing declines in state sales tax revenue mean a likely moratorium on further MSBA funding sometime in the next decade. Long and short: its now or never, and the economic slump makes this a good time to go out to bid.
Given any large project – or change of any type, really – there are always going to be plausible arguments, like Ed's, why this isn't the time, or why the change will be bad, not good or why everything could go wrong, not right, and how if we'd just been more forward thinking or prudent or thrifty at some indeterminate point in the past we could have avoided the whole mess. It doesn't mean those arguments are right — just that someone's always gonna be able to make them. Ed was at the meeting and asked very sensible and respectful questions, for the most part, which were answered in a very thorough manner.There does get to be a point, though, where you just have to make a decision and stop second guessing. Re: cost reductions, as was pointed out: the money that has been budgeted is based on very conservative estimates. The Chenery came on ahead of schedule and under cost by about $600k. Nobody's promising the same with the Wellington, but I think people would love to return money to the town at the end of this. Finally, MSBA pointed out that bids are coming in significantly lower than expected these days, so we could see a big reduction in cost right off the bat if we can go to bid with this project in the fall, as planned. As with any construction project, there gets to be a point where you can be penny wise and pound foolish. As an example: we're going to pay more for boilers because they're super efficient and will pay for themselves in around 8 years, even with today's energy prices.Should prices spike, the ROI is shorter. In the search for savings, you could look at that and say “hey, we can get boilers for less and save money!” except that it costs us money in the long run. Just a factoid: the new Wellington, it is estimated, will save Belmont $80,000 A YEAR in energy costs. For those of you who have been following our current budget crisis, that's between 1 and 2 full time teaching positions that we're wasting on a century old building will failing HVAC, structural problems and insufficient insulation. Vote YES on Wellington!
Hey PJ. Just back from the community-wide meeting. There was a lot of discussion from MSBA and others that this money is here now, but will not be in the future — and that continuing declines in state sales tax revenue mean a likely moratorium on further MSBA funding sometime in the next decade. Long and short: its now or never, and the economic slump makes this a good time to go out to bid.
Given any large project – or change of any type, really – there are always going to be plausible arguments, like Ed's, why this isn't the time, or why the change will be bad, not good or why everything could go wrong, not right, and how if we'd just been more forward thinking or prudent or thrifty at some indeterminate point in the past we could have avoided the whole mess. It doesn't mean those arguments are right — just that someone's always gonna be able to make them. Ed was at the meeting and asked very sensible and respectful questions, for the most part, which were answered in a very thorough manner.There does get to be a point, though, where you just have to make a decision and stop second guessing. Re: cost reductions, as was pointed out: the money that has been budgeted is based on very conservative estimates. The Chenery came on ahead of schedule and under cost by about $600k. Nobody's promising the same with the Wellington, but I think people would love to return money to the town at the end of this. Finally, MSBA pointed out that bids are coming in significantly lower than expected these days, so we could see a big reduction in cost right off the bat if we can go to bid with this project in the fall, as planned. As with any construction project, there gets to be a point where you can be penny wise and pound foolish. As an example: we're going to pay more for boilers because they're super efficient and will pay for themselves in around 8 years, even with today's energy prices.Should prices spike, the ROI is shorter. In the search for savings, you could look at that and say “hey, we can get boilers for less and save money!” except that it costs us money in the long run. Just a factoid: the new Wellington, it is estimated, will save Belmont $80,000 A YEAR in energy costs. For those of you who have been following our current budget crisis, that's between 1 and 2 full time teaching positions that we're wasting on a century old building will failing HVAC, structural problems and insufficient insulation. Vote YES on Wellington!