Council reviews land takings for Paul Revere School project on April 28

REVERE – The city is preparing to spend $1.8 million to buy five lots and homes around the Paul Revere School to provide sufficient land for a new school.The properties will be acquired under state eminent domain proceedings and the City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the takings April 28 at 6 p.m. in City Hall prior to voting on the acquisitions.Under state eminent domain law, when a city or town determines it needs to take private land for public use, it can propose a price for acquiring the land from the owner and proceed with the taking.Plans call for building a new elementary school on the Roosevelt Street site of the current Paul Revere as early as next year.According to city order of taking documents, the city is offering to pay Kathe Tano Gallagher and James J. Tano $400,000 for their land at 407 Revere St., including their three-story home. The city is also paying $155,000 for land the Tanos own on Friend Street.The city is prepared to pay $375,000 to Irene and Kevin Gallagher and Philip Zizza $375,000 for land and a three-story house at 22 Roosevelt. It is also offering the Gallaghers $155,000 for land they own at 22A Roosevelt.It is also offering $630,000 to acquire a house on 8,732 square feet of land at 24-26 Roosevelt owned by Jean Wilson.The 400 students now attending the Paul Revere will start the next academic year at the Beachmont School in August under a plan reviewed by the School Committee.The plan calls for Beachmont students to free up space for their Paul Revere counterparts by moving into the newly completed Rumney Marsh Academy in late August.Rumney Marsh is a new middle school under construction next to the high school and American Legion Highway. It is the third public school built in the city in as many years with construction of the Whelan and Susan Anthony schools completed in 2006.The city has given state School Building Authority officials a commitment to build the new Paul Revere by mid-summer 2009 in time to open the new school for the 2009-2010 school year.Mayor Thomas Ambrosino told Councilors in December he hopes to meet with SBA representatives this winter and get a sense of what percentage of the Paul Revere project’s $20 million cost will be reimbursed by the state.By contrast, the West Revere building housing the new Whelan School and the Susan Anthony middle school cost $38 million and the price tag for Rumney Marsh is $31.8 million to date.The city also wants to build a new McKinley School by 2011.