SWAMPSCOTT — Voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to replace a significant portion of the roof of Swampscott Middle School at a special Town Meeting Monday night.
The roof replacement, which was approved by a vote of 204-3, is estimated to cost the town $1.9 million.
“It’s really critical that we take the next step and make a major replacement of this roof,” said Max Kasper, the town’s facilities director. “We cannot continue to have water infiltrating into the building. You start to risk having additional issues beyond just the roof.”
Kasper explained that while the town had originally sought funding for the project from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the application was denied because the administration only offers reimbursement for roofs more than 30 years old. The sections of the roof that need to be replaced were built in 1992 and 1996, which makes them close to that age, but they won’t last long enough, Kasper said.
“It doesn’t have another year in it. It doesn’t have another couple years in it,” he said. “There’s also not a guarantee with the MSBA program, even if you meet the threshold with age, that you’re even going to be accepted into the program or funded, so you have to make a decision at some point.”
The section of the roof that currently holds solar panels will not be replaced, as it was updated before the panels were installed. The new roof replacement will not include solar panels, although it will be solar-ready so that they can be added in the future as a separate project.
The project will be completed over the summer when students are not in the building.
Also at the town meeting, an article was approved to increase the funding for a feasibility study for a new elementary school in the town from $750,000 to $915,000 by a vote of 179-25.
The additional funds will allow the School Building Committee to perform additional studies on the site, including a geotechnical investigation, environmental analysis and additional traffic and site studies.
“We’re moving beyond the feasibility and into another phase of evaluations,” said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “That’s only going to help us not only win MSBA reimbursement but get better information for Town Meeting, so when we’re back in the fall we have more information about … the concerns presented by neighbors and folks that have really engaged with this project.”
The additional studies will allow the School Building Committee to come up with a more accurate cost estimate for the new elementary school building.
