After approving Article 7 at the Special Town Meeting Monday night, residents could see a tax increase when it’s all said and done.
The cost for Motion 1 to renovate Fiske and Schofield Elementary Schools will be $2,432,000. The bulk of this is to cover architectural designs for $1,275,000. The construction manager will cost $420,000. The owner’s project manager will cost another $209,000.
“We will be back next year looking for an appropriation of funds to cover the cost of construction related to the infrastructure renovation at Schofield and Fiske,” said Hans Larson, executive director of general government.
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Motion 2, which will study the potential renovation of the Hardy, Hunnewell and Upham Elementary Schools will cost $90,000.
“We will be looking at some point for some modest amount of design funds somewhat down the road but the more substantial appropriations to cover detail design and ultimately construction,” Larson said. “Our expectation is to fund those with debt exclusions. We are currently anticipating that there will be two of those in FY17 and FY19. Those start to play in a couple of years after the debt exclusion for the Fiske and Schofield construction work.”
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For Motion 3, the cost would be $75,000 to study Wellesley Middle School infrastructure issues. This study was proposed in 2002, but not yet addressed. The study will include inefficiencies, code compliance, equipment life expectancy, potential energy savings and more. The town is anticipating requesting design funds in fiscal year 2017 and are looking at a potential debt exclusion to fund the cost of related construction work in fiscal year 2018.
“We are looking at potentially four debt exclusions here in the coming years to essentially fund the better part of the cost related to all of this work,” Larson said. “We believe we’ll be beyond our ability to fund within inside the levy debt particularly given other pressures we anticipate on the operating budget going forward.”
The fiscal year 2014 tax impact is $1,144 for the annual household. After the passing of article 7, the tax impact will be about $1,558 in fiscal year 2022. This is an increase of $414.
“This 10-year plan is a work in progress. It will necessarily continue to evolve in the coming year,” Larson said.
Town resident Pete Jones expressed concern over the money being spent on non-critical projects lately. To better support schools and other important projects in the future, he suggested the town consider putting a freeze on non-essential items such as beautification projects.
“It’s a lot of money,” Jones said. “I think it’s going to take a while to recover from that.”
The town is looking seeking assistance for these projects from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Statements of interest will be sent to the MSBA and they will review the projects. If the MSBA participates, the projects could see a portion of the cost reimbursed.
“The MSBA role is really a linchpin that needs to get resolved before we can substantively resolve some of the big questions as to what this plan is really going to look like in the next year or two,” Larson said.Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
