October 14, 2008

School plan delayed, but site purchases moving forward

The controversial $130 million plan to construct two new schools may be delayed for as long as three years.
School Superintendent Philip Streifer proposed a new timetable Tuesday that would put off most of the construction of the 900-student schools for up to three years, shifting their opening date to the fall of 2015.
The goal of the new timetable is to lock in the state’s promise to reimburse the city for nearly 74 percent of the cost while postponing the bulk of the tax impact until, with luck, better times have returned, officials said.
Mayor Art Ward said he embraced the shift because it takes the economy into account as well as the difficulties that taxpayers face already.
Plus, he said, it looks forward “the hope for a brighter future.”
City Comptroller Glenn Klocko said the revised plan is “much better” for the city from a financial standpoint because “it allows for a market correction.”
The move by educators followed Klocko’s warning last week that market chaos, and problems selling municipal bonds, might force the city to cancel the projects.
Streifer offered an alternative that keeps the project alive for an extended period while requiring city taxpayers to fork over only about $3 million during the next five years, according to figures prepared by the Board of Education.
Basically, Streifer’s new plan calls for everything to go along as anticipated until a construction contract is issued in June 2010.
The difference would be to have the firm hired carry out only $1 million worth of work for each of the next three years, just enough to keep the project on the state’s active list, if everything works out.
The bulk of the construction – some $97 million worth – would be done in 2014 and 2015 under the plan that Streifer offered to a joint session of the City Council and Board of Finance.
“It’s a very well thought out plan,” said Cheryl Thibeault, a finance commissioner.

Nicastro calls for hearing on new school site
City councilors unanimously agreed to hold a public hearing on the possible purchase of a 17-acre lot at 851 Matthews Street for a new school.
“I don’t think the public should feel they are left out of the loop,” said city Councilor Frank Nicastro, who proposed the hearing.
Mayor Art Ward called it “a good idea” and the rest of the council endorsed it.
It will likely occur before a joint session of the West Bristol School Building Committee and the City Council slated for “he next two or three weeks,” Ward said, where officials will take action on the proposal to put one of the new schools near the corner of Matthews Street and Clark Avenue.
Rimcoski said he would rather have joint session after the hearing so there’s time to get answers to the public’s questions.
The city is only eyeing the 17-acre site at the moment, but it will probably consider purchasing an adjacent 12 acres as well.
School Superintendent Philip Streifer said the allowable acreage for a school this size is no more than 24 acres, so buying the adjacent 12 acres would leave the city paying for the extra 5 acres by itself.
Streifer said it would make sense to acquire it for additional playing fields, which Ward and councilors appeared to accept. There was no vote, however.
Streifer said the owners of both parcels are willing to sell.

New timetable
December 2008 – Complete purchases of two school sites.
Fall 2008 – Hire architects for schools.
January 2010 – Complete blueprints for schools.
June 2010 – Bid out project and hire contractor.
August 2015 – Finish construction.
September 2015 – Open new schools. Close old ones.

Read Streifer's memo by clicking here.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

BOE, time to make out Stiefer's termination notice. Stop this mad man now!

Anonymous said...

9:10pm, With all due respect, you are forgetting that there are a whole set of people in town who want the schools and will be more than ready to give the mayor HIS termination notice next November. Streifer's plan is a reasonable compromise and he should be commended for creating it as opposed to the morons down the street from him who just stand around all day wringing their hands and listening to Glen Klocko come up with excuses to do nothing.

Anonymous said...

It is just so wrong to use the term "moving forward" with this news story......for so many reasons.

Steve Collins said...

Hah. Never thought about that last night.

Anonymous said...

Awww come on guys....this is a no brainer. We're in a recession. Now is not a good time to start building anything. If we can lock in the State's reimbursement and hold off until better times, terrific! Sometimes moving forward is really just standing still and keeping your head above water.

Anonymous said...

Better times will bring higher construction costs.

Building now does not impact the budget for 2-3 years, when times will be better.

Anonymous said...

9:50 - Maybe times will be better....maybe not. Wiser to wait and make sure the economy is moving in the right direction before jumping. If construction costs go up in better times, we'll all be better prepared to pay for them. I think Bristol is wise to err on the side of caution.

Anonymous said...

Moving forward! Moving forward! Moving forward!

Anonymous said...

It is very interesting that Dr. Streifer would be in favor of building a k-8 school with probably close to 1000 students across from a brand new, very expensive, 55 and over complex on Matthews Street, especially since Dr. Streifer resides there. His neighbors will run him out of town when they find out. The traffic on Matthews Street will be incredible. This tells me that Dr. Streifer is not necessarily planning on staying in Bristol forever. This is a terrible decision in terms of the master plan of development. I feel bad for the developer of this 55 and over complex who I'm sure is having a hard enough time trying to sell the units during this economic down turn as it is. This school will kill his project and he will loose thousands not to mention the people who already invested their life savings in one of these nits only to see there property value and equity vanish. I'm sure he wouldn't of proposed to build a senior complex there if he knew the city was going to build a school nearby. Bristol needs to get it's act together in terms of consideration for it's businessmen and citizens!

Anonymous said...

Oh No Mr Block! Now everyone will move out of Bristol!!! What will we ever do without two new big schools?????

Anonymous said...

October 15, 2008 10:58 AM:

Empire building Streifer's not worried about his neighborhood. If anyone thinks he plans on retiring in Bristol (with his gold plated pension, etc.) you're nuts!

Anonymous said...

This school project is an example of "unsustaninable" development.

There is little regard for energy efficiency, conservation of existing resources, conservation of land, carbon footprint, or developing a walkable community.
There is no regard for the social and psychological consequences of shoving little kids into oversized facilities.

Looks like the taxpayers are being held hostage by the self-serving school construction conglomerate and cohorts.

Anonymous said...

Great Idea .....


Just what Bristol needs .....


Let's buy more land and do nothing with it .......

The taxpayers are getting used to the dirty end of the stick , so , let's put it to them one more time while we still can .

At least they won't need to evict little old ladies , or , drive another business out of town .

Just raise taxes needlessly .

Anonymous said...

Superintendent Philip Streifer is a tax and spend liberal extremist. Fire him NOW!

Anonymous said...

I hate to only pick on Streifer. FIRE OR REPLACE EVERY ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICIAL THAT SUPPORTS THIS PROPOSAL FOR THE MATTHEWS STREET SCHOOL.

Anonymous said...

"The Confederacy of Greed"

Anonymous said...

"I hate to only pick on Streifer. FIRE OR REPLACE EVERY ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICIAL THAT SUPPORTS THIS PROPOSAL FOR THE MATTHEWS STREET SCHOOL. October 15, 2008 3:24 PM"

Here's a news update for you: the voters had the chance to "fire or replace every elected or appointed official" last November, and EVERY member of the Board of Education got re-elected. You just can't face the fact that the voters have accepted the new K-8 schools. Don't like democracy in action? Then move to Russia.

Anonymous said...

And EVERY City Council member that ran for reelection was successful too.