Saugus voters to decide on Belmonte facade Nov. 8

SAUGUS – After last month?s Town Meeting approved $19 million in renovations for the Belmonte Middle School, residents of Saugus must wait until the Nov. 8 town election to finalize the project.While November may seem a long way off, the School Building Committee along with representatives from Fletcher Thompson Architects, inched closer to a final plan Monday after narrowing down designs for the building?s exterior.Scott Payette, Fletcher Thompson?s Boston Office President, presented more than 15 designs for the school?s facade in a slide show. The plans ranged from costly, all-brick exteriors to less expensive metal panel exteriors.With masonry costs at $50 per square foot, an all-brick facade would cost around $3.5 million compared to the $10-$25 per square foot, $1.1 million price tag for the metal paneling.?There are really two reasons to upgrade the facade,” said Payette. “One is appearance. It?s a rather unattractive, gray structure. The other major issue is energy.”Payette went on to explain that the building?s R-value, or thermal resistance, would soar with a new exterior.?Calculating the R-value in a rough way? you have an R-value that hovers around 1.2,” said Payette. “Your typical home, if you have insulated walls, is going to be an R-value of 14 or something like that. The higher the R-value the better the insulation.”With a new exterior in place, Payette said the building?s R-value would jump to between 10 to 15.But, while the metal panel design costs far less than the brick, Town Treasurer Wendy Hatch said she wasn?t sure the contemporary look of the metal panels would fit in a town as old as Saugus.?I think, as a resident and growing up in the community, we don?t dispute the fact that the school?s an eyesore,” said Hatch. “It?s a contemporary design, but we?re not a contemporary community. And so I think that, myself and others that I?ve talked to, that we want to probably bring it away from that and maybe some of the old town, home school traditional charm and less of a contemporary feel.”?I don?t think a contemporary facade with that dramatic a color and scheme is necessarily what the residents are going to want to pay for,” added Hatch.With that sentiment in mind, the SBC narrowed down the designs to a mix of metal paneling and brick.Now it?s back to the drawing board for Payette, who will work to come up with a design that is both traditional and economical. The next SBC meeting is slated for July 18.