Select Board Chair Alex Vispoli and member Christian Huntress had reservations when the board was asked Monday to approve the Andover High School Building Committee’s proposed timeline for bringing the project to special town meeting next January for final approval.
The schedule lays out the various deadlines for designs and plans, approval of $1.3 million in May for schematic design, and decisions from the select board and school committee through January 2024. But Huntress said he was reluctant to approve the schedule beyond May’s town meeting until the building committee could provide cost estimates.
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“I support the project. I agree we need a new high school,” Huntress said. “I just struggle with how we’re going to pay for it. What I struggle for with this timeline is we’re being asked to approve it five weeks before we’ll have any brush with an idea of the cost.”
The building committee has thus far steered clear of discussing costs, but said it will “hopefully” have preliminary cost estimates for its proposals to build a new school and renovate the existing one by the end of March.
After a lengthy discussion, the select board unanimously approved the schedule through May and will revisit approving the remainder of the schedule at a later day.
“I understand,” Building Committee Chair Mark Johnson said. “I guess my only response, Chris, is regardless what the number comes in at, we keep going.”
More coverage of Monday’s select board meeting:
- Frustration Grows Over Town Yard Delays
- MBTA Rules Could Create 2,301 Affordable Units In Andover: Select Board Notebook
Chairman Alex Vispoli said he shared some of Huntress’s concerns after hearing complaints during the public comment portion of the meeting on this and future year property tax increases. This year’s residential property tax bills are going up nearly 6 percent.
“When can we get a financial analysis of this? That’s the missing piece here,” Vispoli said. “So I’m reluctant to go forward through next year without a checkpoint where we can say what the cost is.”
Select board candidate Kevin Coffey, who will face incumbent Laura Gregory in the town election next month, echoed Vispoli and Huntress’s demands for cost estimates.
“I’ve been asking repeatedly for costs, so I appreciate Chris’s line of questioning. We do all agree we have to do something at the high school — I’m not at all confused about that,” Coffey said. “But when it is likely to be, by a considerable margin, the largest expense this town has ever taken, it seems to me getting some basic estimate of numbers on the table early makes a lot of sense.”