Marblehead feels heat on Glover School rebuild project

MARBLEHEAD – The Massachusetts School Building Authority told Marblehead Wednesday that a special Town Meeting and special election this fall are “crucial” to the town’s plan to build a new Glover School.In a letter discussed at Wednesday night’s Glover School Building Committee meeting, MSBA Director of Capital Planning Mary Pichetti told the committee that the MSBA will maintain the state aid figure at 40 percent ($11.2 million of the $28.8 million total) as long as the project is approved by voters at a special Town Meeting and special election “in the early fall.”If the town does not approve the project the MSBA “may” remove the Glover project from its place on the list and make the town start over, seeking 31 percent reimbursement instead, according to the letter.Owners Project Manager Chuck Adam interpreted the letter: “It’s only 40 percent (until) this fall, if you wait until next spring it’s 31 percent.”Glover Committee Chair Patricia Blackmer is scheduled to go before the selectmen Wednesday to hear concerns and gauge support for the project. Blackmer said she met with Selectmen Chairman James Nye to discuss his feelings about the project.She was also scheduled to sound out School Committee support for the project at this morning’s retreat.”It’s vitally important for us to get the support of the selectmen,” said committee member Richard Matthews. “There are people feeling now, ‘You had your chance and you lost.”As an argument to win the support of some conservatives, Blackmer circulated a three-page document reminding voters of the cost of “catastrophic systems failure:” a furnace breakdown at one of the two Glover School buildings (1916 and 1948 buildings) or the Eveleth School (1958) or all three, which would require the emergency relocation of 80-400 school children and the expenditure of $18.5 million for building repairs, which is not reimbursable, or $38.3 million to renovate all three buildings, with a possible $11.6 million reimbursement from the MSBA.Blackmer said waiting until spring will cost the town $1.7 million in state reimbursement and as much as $1.1 million in escalating construction costs, including a 3 percent pay hike for construction workers.She asked the committee to continue looking at areas where the project cost could be reduced.