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Garwood Planning Bd. OKs BOE’s Five-Year Plan
Main, News
By DEVON GOHDE on
October 3, 2024
Garwood Planning Bd. OKs BOE’s Five-Year Plan

GARWOOD — The Garwood Planning Board at its meeting last Wednesday approved the Garwood Public School District’s five-year Long-Range Facilities Plan, following a presentation by Superintendent of Schools Christopher Kinney.

GARWOOD — The Garwood Planning Board at its meeting last Wednesday approved the Garwood Public School District’s five-year Long-Range Facilities Plan, following a presentation by Superintendent of Schools Christopher Kinney.

Since the Washington School is back within the district, plans to repair the roof as needed have been added to the five-year plan. Planning board member Kathleen Villaggio asked Mr. Kinney how the roof and other improvements would be funded, as a complete repair project could cost up to $1.3 million.

Mr. Kinney stated that the roof may just need repairs instead of a replacement. Mrs. Villaggio asked if the school district would look into a bond for it, to which Mr. Kinney responded that the board of education would have to make that call. She added that redoing the whole roof at once may be more cost effective than patching up certain areas.

“It’s definitely a consideration to do it all at once, but it’s also a consideration as we have it,” said Mr. Kinney. “It has been evaluated to the extent that certain portions would need to be replaced sooner than others.”

Planning board member Bill Nierstedt suggested the board of education take another look at sections of the plan to see how much of the roof needs repairs. Replacing the roof all at once may cost more than going section by section, and some roof sections are brand new.

“I don’t want to have a $1.8 million bond issue down the road to fix a roof in 2029,” said Mr. Nierstedt.

Chairman Stephen Greet asked Mr. Kinney if they have a budget item or line item they can do locally to put funds away for a significant overview of repairs, to which Mr. Kinney responded that they do. They have reserves, which is where money is set aside by the board for emergency reasons.

During public comment on the Long-Range Facilities five-year plan, resident Mike Vadia raised concerns about the roof of Washington School being neglected. Mr. Vadia was concerned about the roof being ignored since the time that YMCA was renting the building.

“It should have been talked about and discussed or brought up to the planning board about repairs that could be and not just throw them in now since we took the building back over,” said Mr. Vadia.

Mr. Nierstedt pointed out that the board of education’s decision to turn over the five-year Long-Range Facilities Plan has nothing to do with Washington School being turned back over to the district.

“I understand the question is, why hasn’t the board of ed. looked at this over the past 10 years?; I don’t think this is the board to answer that,” he said.

Mrs. Villaggio also stated, going from her memory, that when the YMCAtook over Washington School, it was agreed in the contract that if anything needed to be fixed in excess of $2,000, the board of education would have to take care of it as anything under that would be up to the YMCA to handle.

Mr. Nierstedt soon made a motion to accept the board of education’s Long-Range Facilities Plan, recommending that the school board look into a capital plan for the roof. Mrs. Villaggio seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved by the planning board.

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