By GAYLA CAWLEY
MARBLEHEAD — Residents will decide Tuesday whether they are willing to pay more taxes for a study to renovate the Elbridge Gerry School and a fire pumper truck.
Voters will be asked to exclude the items from Proposition 2½. If approved, the fire truck would cost the average homeowner an additional $74.40 over 10 years, the length of the bond. For the study, taxpayers would be responsible for another $55.80 over five years.
Last month, Town Meeting approved funding for the $750,000 study and a $620,000 fire truck. A majority vote is required by taxpayers.
Proposition 2½ places limits on the amount a community can raise through property taxes. A municipality cannot levy more than two and a half percent of the total value of all taxable real and personal property.
“If the ballot questions pass, the town will begin the process of borrowing the funds authorized over the summer,” Town Administrator John McGinn wrote in an email. “This would allow the procurement process to begin with fire pumper. The Gerry School building committee would continue to follow the process prescribed by MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Authority) in terms of the feasibility study.”
The state will pay about 32 percent for the cost of the study, or $243,525. Taxpayers would be responsible for $506,475.
The feasibility study would be conducted for a K-1 school that has never been improved since it was built in 1906. The survey is the first step to qualify for state money from the MSBA.
The project would have to approved at Town Meeting in 2018. Construction options would be considered after the study is completed. The process could take up to two years.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The three polling locations are The Town House, 1 Market Square, The Masonic Temple, 62 Pleasant St. and The Marblehead Community Center, 10 Humphrey St.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley
