Saugus parents largely in favor of debt exclusion vote for Belmonte

SAUGUS – Parents picking up their kids at area elementary schools Friday largely threw their support behind the Belmonte Middle School debt-exclusion vote after the Board of Selectmen approved the ballot question earlier this week.Kelly Erickson was one of many parents lined up along Walnut Street in Saugus to pick their kids up from the Lynnhurst School and said, with children in kindergarten and second grade, she would like to see the school repaired.?I feel like it needs to be fixed,” said Erickson. “And I don?t know that we?ll ever get this opportunity again with the government kicking in so much money to help. It?s worth it as someone whose children are most likely going to go to that school.”The total cost of the Belmonte repair project is $18.9 million, 51 percent of which will be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The rest of the roughly $9 million remaining will be paid for if voters pass a debt exclusion. This would see the tax levy for the averaged price home increase by around $60 starting in 2016 and lasting for 20 years.Erickson, who voted for the snow and ice assessment in June, said she plans to vote for debt exclusion in November.?If it?s something that?s going to improve our town or improve my child?s education I don?t have a problem paying for it,” said Erickson. “That?s what our taxes are for.”After picking up her fifth-grade daughter at the Oaklandvale School Friday, Susan Osgood said the Belmonte is desperate need of repair.?My daughter is going there next year and I went there a long time ago and it?s a dungeon and it needs help,” Osgood “It needed help back then when it was new.”The Belmonte School was built in 1964 and the current repair plan calls for improvements to the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing systems along with upgrades to the windows, building facades and lighting. There will also be electrical and energy efficiency improvements.Lynne Aiken has a fifth-grader at Lynnhurst and two kids in high school and said, when it comes to education, no expense should be spared.?I think it?s good,” said Aiken. “They should have everything that they need.”Bill MacArthur was picking up his fifth-grader at the Oaklandvale School, and said he wouldn?t vote for the project because he?d rather see a whole new school built.?I?d actually rather have a new school rather than putting into the old one,” said MacArthur. “I probably wouldn?t (vote for it) because I?d rather see a new school.”Mark MacEachern was also at Oaklandvale and said, while he?d vote for the measure, he doesn?t think it will pass.?I don?t think it?s going to go because we have way too many elderly and retired people who live in the town and not enough people who have children going to the school,” said MacEachern, who has two kids at Oaklandvale. “That?s an awful lot of money for the town to have to pay for. For the taxpayers I would hope that the federal government or the state could help us out a lot more than that.”Details about the project are posted on the Saugus School District website and on the town?s website.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter at @MattTempesta.