Swampscott officials concerned over capital improvement funds

SWAMPSCOTT-Some town officials are concerned that the school district has not used previously-secured Capital Improvement funds.Capital Improvements Committee Chairman Cindy Merkle said the town bonded projects for the school district in previous years that are still pending.?The schools have a lot of uncompleted projects and some projects haven’t even been started,” she said. “We are paying interest on those bonds.”The district submitted requests for several capital improvement projects for the upcoming fiscal year but Merkle said the committee would recommend Town Meeting fund only a request for asbestos abatement at the middle school.At a recent selectman meeting, Selectman Robert Mazow expressed concern over backlog of funded projects the district has.?It appears they bit off more than they can chew,” he said. “The schools have numerous projects they haven’t started. They would be better served to look at three or four core projects instead of seven or eight.”School Business Manager Ed Cronin said when he was hired almost two years ago the district had a backlog of projects.?There was a huge backlog when I came in,” he said. “There were a bunch of little projects. From what I could tell my predecessor (Michael Tarlow) put in for everything under the sun.”Cronin said the district just completed replacing the doors at Hadley Elementary School and is continuing to complete capital projects.?That was an outstanding project when I got here,” he said. “That has been wrapped up. We have reduced the number of backlogged projects dramatically and pretty much taken care of prior things. There is only one project we requested for last year that is still incomplete ? the telephone and intercom system for Clarke and Hadley.”Cronin said he didn’t want to proceed with installing the equipment until he knew the schools would remain open.?A lot of what we do here will depend on what the school does with the (school) master plan,” he said. “We don’t want to keep putting money into elementary and middle schools if they are going to be closed and new ones built. We’re trying to be very very conservative with the town’s money.”As for the replacement of the roof at Clarke Elementary School and replacement of windows at the middle school, Cronin said that work would be done this summer.?It’s not the type of work we can do when kids are in school,” he said. “Much of the work has to wait until summer.”