There is a new “Save the Date” for the Special Town Meeting this winter. The STM will open on Monday, March 2nd at 6:00 pm. It will be held at Trottier Middle School.
The STM Warrant will focus on next steps for maintaining and renovating Southborough public school buildings.
One Article will ask voters to approve the funds needed to repair Neary School’s leaking roof, which is considered to be at the end of its useful life span. Because the administration thinks a full replacement is likely needed this summer, the cost of that is expected to be in the low millions.
Prior to that Article, the Select Board will also ask voters to fund 1-3 feasibility studies to further examine long term school building options by renovating existing buildings, including potentially closing Neary School.
You can read more about that here.
The meeting was originally slated for Saturday, March 7th. It was moved up one week to February 28th due to a conflict with the Moderator and the School Committee’s request to move the meeting further away from the Annual Town Meeting. Unfortunately, it turned out that Neary students are scheduled to perform their afterschool program play twice that day at Trottier.
The Select Board convened this morning to reconsider the date. Moderator Paul Cimino assured that he had someone ready to step in as acting Moderator for the meeting if they chose the 7th.
Prior to the vote, there was some concern expressed that getting the Article covered in one evening will be tough, and that many seniors don’t like to drive after dark. But, Chair Andrew Dennington noted that there was no perfect date.
In the end, some factors that weighed against the 7th was its closer proximity to Town Meeting and the fact that Southborough is hoping to host youth basketball playoffs at Trottier that weekend.
Stay tuned for more details on the meeting and the Articles. (The Town will eventually be posting information for voters here.)
