Above: Town officials hope that studies to look at potential renovations of Neary School will lead to a project for Special Town Meeting this fall. They need a volunteer with appropriate skills to join the committee overseeing the work this summer. (images cropped from Neary website, flyer, and consultant presentation)
In a post about committee vacancies earlier this week, I noted that the Town would need to fill a seat on the Elementary School Building Committee (ESBC). Soon after, the Select Board decided to advertise for a volunteer with relevant experience in engineering, construction or design of buildings.
Applicants need to act quickly. The board will make the appointment at their June 2nd meeting. That means applications likely need to be in before next Friday.
There is a volunteer waiting in the wings. But a Select Board member highlighted that his appointment might create an “optics issue”, adding to the challenge of getting support for a future project.
The new appointment is to replace ESBC member Robert Moss, whose wife died earlier this month. The board is looking to find a member with a similar skill background.
Most members of the Select Board would have been happy to appoint Mark Davis on Tuesday night. Davis is a former member of the Neary Building Committee (NBC), and had applied to be on the ESBC. But at Select Board member Tim Fling’s suggestion, they agreed to table the vote until their next meeting.
If they don’t have an appropriate alternative in time for the June 2nd meeting, they plan to appoint Davis.
Pfaff hopes that the feasibility study contract will be ready for the Select Board to approve at its June 2nd meeting. (Although it was on Tuesday’s agenda, it wasn’t ready for a vote.)
Once the contract is approved, the committee appears to have a lot of work ahead of them this summer to be on track to bring a recommendation to Special Town Meeting voters this fall. (See the timeline right from the selected contractor’s presentation during the bid process.)
Applying
To read the ESBC’ charge, click here. To view the three meetings they have held, click here. (Or click here for my coverage highlights.) To apply for the ESBC, click here.
Background on Davis and Optics Issues
In Davis’ favor is extensive experience touted by Select Board member Kathy Cook. And Andrew Pfaff (an ESBC member and just-elected member of the Select Board), said that Davis had attended all of the ESBC’s meetings and written feedback. Appointing him would mean their new member would immediately be up to speed.
But Fling pointed out that adding Davis to the committee would mean that the majority of the committee is comprised of former NBC members. He worried that could be a “huge risk”.
Fling was referring to the vocal opponents to the failed proposal for a New Neary Building project. Select Board members have previously acknowledged that they have heard from residents who have worried that the new committee and process would be used to serve up another too expensive project.
Since construction costs for municipal buildings is expensive (and potentially rising due to oil prices and other economic factors), it’s likely that any renovation will come with projected tax increases that residents are unhappy about.
The question is whether a project can be proposed that the majority of voters trust is both needed and the best possible option. In that light, Davis’ appointment could be worse than just increasing to a majority the number of former NBC members. It’s possible many appointments would distrust the entire committee.
Some vocal opponents to previous project indicated they believed the cost had ballooned due to over-prioritizing purported educational improvements. They chafed at the school administration and School Committee’s advocacy for elements, characterizing them as “wants” rather than “needs”.
With Moss stepping down, the only “new” members of the ESBC are the two educators that were appointed by the School Committee. The Select Board characterized their skill set strength as looking at the project from an educational perspective. It is the other three members appointed by the Select Board who were expected to (hopefully) have the skills to manage a building project and reign in costs.
Both Pfaff and former NBC Chair Jason Malinowski (also on the ESBC) now say that they have heard clearly the public feedback that the former project wasn’t the right version for our community. But prior to failed votes last May, they defended the project, arguing that they had whittled down costs as much as possible.
Davis’ potentially controversial background isn’t just as an advocate for the prior project. At the Special Town Meeting in March, he argued (unsuccessfully) for striking some of the language in the Neary Feasibility Study Article. That section detailed the seeking a study of the least expensive option for extending Neary’s life for a shorter period of time.
That night, and in his interview for the ESBC, Davis explained that he believed it would duplicate work. He argued that that the costs would already be clear in the itemized figures reported out of the study of a more robust renovation. Pfaff supported that stance, saying it would reduce work under the study and could cut the study’s cost.
But proponents of studying the potential for a smaller project argued that you can’t just pull some of the figures from the itemized costs. It requires studying a different approach that could result in different costs.
