Board of Aldermen 12-23-2019 Page 5
So | am asking for your support. The Budget Review voted unanimously to support it, | would hope that |
would get that same support from every member. | am here, | am available to answer any questions that
you ask. Thank you.
Carl Seidel Hello, | am Carl S-E-I-D-E-L. 39 Pilgrim Circle. Ok | am glad that the Mayor asked questions
about the financial part because that’s what | am here, asking questions about the bonding and the school
and the other elements of the school. | regret | was out of town when the Committee had its meeting, but
questions that | haven’t heard answers to are the breakdown in the elements of each of the projects; the
projected student population by grade. As | understand they are building for expansion when everybody
sees that the student population has declined; a history of future projection of our bonding debt and the list
of potential projects that you have. You have a lot of things on your plate and $180 million dollars is a lot
and it is going to mean a lot in the taxes.
A rough proposal for maybe a much-reduced type of school instead of $80 plus million dollars, something in
the $50 to $60 million dollar range. And that is what | hope you consider and respond to that. Thank you.
Dan DuFour 52 Conant Road, I’m trying to make it quick, bonding. | think it is irresponsible to vote to bond
all of this without knowing how much it is going to cost the taxpayer. | mean the Mayor started the evening
talking about fiscal responsibility and you can’t tell me how much it is going to cost in my taxes if all this
bonding passes?
| will move onto the school site and | speak as a taxpayer and someone who was on the School Board for
18 years. | dealt with that plan when it came before us. First of all, it is around a 20-acre parcel if | recall
and it was never meant to be anything but an elementary school. That’s how it was pitched to us. There’s a
big difference in usage between an elementary school and junior high, in traffic. | haven’t seen that issue
addressed whatsoever. Are there going to be enough, there are wetlands on that bigger parcel, is there
enough on that land, useable land on that site to get the parking and the building and all the athletic
facilities that you seek? | haven’t heard those answers anywhere.
Have there been any traffic studies done? | mean | live on Conant Road. Back up for a second, | would
wish that the City did not spend another penny on Elm Street. | was on capital improvements for many,
many years and it was tearful to spend millions of dollars on a building that | knew | would be standing here
tonight talking about because the building is obsolete and is has been for a long time. But to go back,
traffic studies, how about the roads, how about the sidewalks? It is my understanding that if you live within
a mile of the school, bussing is not allowed or is not provided. That area of the City does not have
adequate roads, nor does it have adequate sidewalks. And as | recall and | read this a little bit in the paper,
there is no direct access other than off | believe it is Medallion Circle and you can’t possibly bring all that
traffic through that sub-division. It will have to be off BuckMeadow. It is my understanding that you don’t
even have access to that yet.
To go back to the Mayor’s entre this evening about fiscal responsibility. Tonight you are being asked to
approve over $180 million dollars of bonding, mostly for the school and you are unable to tell me how much
it will impact my tax rate, how much it will cost for road and sidewalk improvements, how the traffic will
affect the greater neighborhood, that whole 03062 or a whole lot of it. And how will you access the schools,
you are not able to tell me any of that yet. Like Commissioner Pappas says this evening, there’s been no
homework done on that but you are ready to approve it. As a taxpayer, that’s repulsive, as someone who
was on the Planning Board for 18 years, it’s not even imaginable that you would move forward without
having the most of those answers. | mean everything is a moving target, but to not have those answers is
just irresponsible. So you know, two days before Christmas? | mean it just doesn’t even look right, there’s
no one here and | know that it is two days before Christmas. You know there’s no reason why you can’t get
the answers and then hold an adequate public meeting and more discussion and provide us with some
answers to some of these questions, so that’s it. Thank you.
