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New Paltz Times - Featured Arts | 11/19/2009 |
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Low marks on the cost
New Paltz Middle School project draws new critics |
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by Mike Townshend
Cost was a key issue at Monday's public forum on a proposed $51.4 million renovation of New Paltz Middle School. Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet (D-New Paltz) threw her voice into the mix, asking the school board to reconsider the project for the sake of the average taxpayer.
"Two years ago when you took up this project, maybe you were headed in the right direction. Nobody expected this year," Zimet said. She added that her own house on scenic Butterville Road overlooking the Shawangunk Mountain Range had been on the market for almost a year before she and her husband withdrew it for lack of interest.
"Normally, houses on Butterville go in like a weekend," she said.
Zimet also said that she'd received many frantic calls from constituents telling her that they were worried that it cost too much. "This is not the time to be talking about $54 million."
"People are freaking out," she said. "They're scared for their kids. They're scared of losing their houses."
One of the higher price ranges for the project is $54 million, however the school board and administrators seem to be gearing up for a decision in January to bring voters a $51.4 million bond initiative.
The legislator wasn't the only one in the crowd who had a problem with the cost.
Mike Boylan, of Gardiner, wanted to know how much the school district might be able to sell the Main Street property.
Right now, the school district is expecting a bit more than $20 million in state building aid for the project. That could leave people in New Paltz, Gardiner and the district's other towns picking up $31.4 million of the tab.
Boylan added: "$31 million is a big nut for anyone to bit on."
Former Deputy Mayor Michael Zierler said he felt that the project's budget was just too large, and warned the school board that "this isn't happening in a vacuum."
Right now, 25 percent -- or $12.8 million -- of the project is built in as a contingency fund in case tearing open the old walls uncovers any unexpected surprises, such as hazardous materials that might need removal.
That figure of 25 percent seemed too high to Zierler, who noted that municipal governments usually factor in soft costs of ten percent. "That is a huge contingency."
Assistant Superintendent Richard Linden, who manages the schools' business office, said that "if it comes in less, we'll borrow less."
Luis Rodriguez, the construction manager hired by the school district, said he felt 25 percent was reasonable. "We don't have a crystal ball, but we've done our homework."
Others in the audience questioned how 800 people could have forced the district into a decision to renovate at the site of the current middle school building.
"That was the loudest voice that the board heard," Superintendent Maria Rice explained of the people who had lobbied the district for green renovation.
Forums on the middle school had been scantly attended until this week's at Lenape Elementary School. The house was packed and more than 30 people had signed up to address district officials.
Many comments telling the school board that the project cost too much or that they should delay the renovations garnered loud applause.
Not everyone felt that the project was out of whack. Joe Pereira said he felt the school district was taking the smart road in looking to repair the school. Past administrators had taken a "Band-Aid" approach to the middle school.
"The approach has always been a Band-Aid approach and it's cost us," Pereira said.
New Paltz resident Rachel Lagodka also felt that the district was right in going forward with the project during the recession to take advantage of lower construction costs. Right now, the school district also has the ability to take advantage of a high bond rating in a low-interest environment.
"The longer it waits, the worse it gets," Lagodka said. "There really isn't a better time than now."
School board Vice President Don Kerr said he would stake his seat on the fact that the project would not run over in costs.
"If this goes south, you blame me -- Don Kerr," he said. The vice president then gave out his phone number to the crowd, who cheered at his remark.
For a home assessed at $297,700 -- the median home value in New Paltz -- the project would mean roughly $70 extra in taxes each year from 2011 until 2014. In the 2015-2016 school year, the tax impact would level out as the district retires debt.
Those figures do not include the cost of yearly increases made to the school budgets, which have effectively been just more than three percent in the past two years.
School board members will discuss how the middle school project would fit into their yearly budgeting process during their next meeting on Nov. 18.
For more information, head online to npcsdms.edublogs.org or check out the school's Web site at www.newpaltz.k12.ny.us.
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© 2010 Ulster Publishing, Inc.
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