Finance Committee OKs $15 Million for Glover School

Amid a plea for more fiscally-responsible leadership, the town's Finance Committee agreed to recommend that Town Meeting approve spending $15.8 million to rebuild the .

The committee postponed a decision on spending a similar amount – $15.1 million – toward capping the town's landfill and building a trash transfer station until the can present a more detailed analysis on the project next Monday. But the committee left little doubt that it viewed the project favorably.

The committee's recommendations set the stage for a renewed battle over how much spending the town can afford. Last year, the Town Meeting approved 10 capital improvement projects, only to have all 10 defeated in the override election in June.

Jack Buba, who led the opposition last year, repeatedly urged committee members to set priorities on the spending projects, not just “rubber stamp” them and send them to Town Meeting.

“I would like for the committee to show some leadership and set priorities for these projects. This is all about affordability,” Buba said.

Buba, who was treasurer of the Not Now We Are In A Recession Ballot Committee last year and a former member of the finance committee, said both the school and the landfill are worthy projects, but the town may not be able to afford them both.

“This is all about affordability,” he said.

Committee Chairman David Harris said he believes the committee has served the taxpayers well in not authorizing several projects and reducing the costs of other projects.

“Millions of dollars in projects that were on last year's Town Warrant are not here,” Harris said.

Projects like capping the landfill and building the school have to be done, he said.

Last year, the Town Meeting approved spending almost $17 million for the new Glover School and $22 million for a new transfer station and capping the landfill. Both of those projects have been reduced significantly for this year.

Not up for consideration at Town Meeting on May 2 are such projects as installing artificial turf for athletic field and $100,000 for rebuilding sidewalks.

Another new project calls for spending $667,793 to renovate the historic Town House to make it accessible for the disabled and elderly. The Town House, which was used as a public meeting and voting place since before the American Revolution, is currently “mothballed,” said Board of Selectmen Chairman Jim Nye because it is not accessible to all.

Buba said he believes that he and others can get the Town House renovated with private donations of money, supplies and labor. He proposed that the committee postpone spending taxpayer money on the Town House for a year to allow for the private effort. Town Administrator Tony Sasso said he was skeptical that enough private funds could be raised for the project.

Three members of the Board of Selectmen said if the funding is approved for the Town House, the installation of an elevator and modernizing of the building's bathroom and air conditioning system would not start until the fall. All three said they would accept any donations toward renovating the Town House.

Proponents of both the new Glover School and the new landfill and transfer station said neither project can wait.

Health Director Wayne Attridge said the state Department of Environmental Protection might start fining the town for not complying with its order to cap the landfill if the town stops spending money to comply with the state's order. Those fines would be between $625,000 and $700,000 a year in addition to the funds to cap the landfill, he said.

The state has agreed to fund 40 percent of the construction costs of the new Glover School. Of the total cost of $25.9 million,  the state would refund the town $10.2 million, said School Committee member Patricia Blackmer.

“If the funding is not approved this spring, we will go to the back of the line,” Blackmer said of the state's funding.

The school building committee has cut almost $2 million off the estimated costs that went to Town Meeting last year. The savings were achieved with several design changes and relocating the proposed school on the site.

Zaxaro Bennett, a mother of a Glover School student, urged the committee to approve the funding for the new school. She said one morning this winter the old boiler at the school was not working and the temperature inside the school building was 45 degrees. “We can't wait until we have an emergency,” she said.

A building subcommittee of the Board of Health will present a detailed analysis of the costs of capping the landfill and building a new trash transfer station next Monday after the Board of Health reviews the final costs on Thursday. Both the health board and finance committee are expected to approve recommending that the Town Meeting approve spending $15.1 million on the project.

The finance committee did approve spending $770,600 to continue monitoring the contamination from the landfill. And it approved the plan to buy and remediate several properties on Stoneybrook Road that have been contaminated. Some of the properties will have to be seized through eminent domain because the town has not been able to reach an agreement with the property owners.

Attridge and Special Town Counsel Lisa Mead asked that the finance committee approve spending $1.2 million on the property owned by Jeff Dinsmore. The Town Meeting last year approved buying the Dinsmore property, but it was defeated along with the other capital projects, sending the town and the Dinsmores back to the negotiating table.

Dinsmore objected to the committee's approval of the funds because they have not yet reached an agreement.

“Our intention has been to negotiate with the town in good faith. This (price) is not where we have ended up,” Dinsmore said.

He told the finance committee that the eminent domain process is “an expensive one.”

The committee made no recommendation on several non-financial items, including removing future police chiefs from civil service, reducing the width of frontage of lots from 100 to 75 feet and allowing police to ticket cars on private property if they are illegally parked in a handicapped space.