The more than $14 million in borrowing special town meeting approved in December for cost overruns at the West Elementary and Shawsheen preschool may end up costing Andover significantly less than originally anticipated.
The Town is now expecting additional state funding, which officials believe will amount to $7 million.
State Sen. “Barry [Feingold] thinks it’s going to be about $7 million, so if things hold…it really will mean that the money that was approved at special town meeting last December — we may not end up having to borrow all of that,” Chair Paula Colby-Clements said at Thursday’s Andover Finance Committee meeting.
When the project first went over budget last summer, the West El building committee closed a $5.5 million budget gap by making about 25 changes to the design, including the “difficult decision” of removing one of the schools’ two elevators. Last month, the building committee added the elevator back into the construction.
Already one of the most expensive public elementary school construction project in Massachusetts history with construction costs of $624 per square foot, West El’s total price tag rose from the original, $151.6 million after Special Town Meeting approved money for budget overruns in December.