'Back to the drawing board': Somerset Middle School project being scaled back
SOMERSET — Plans for the new Somerset Middle School Building will be redrafted and significantly scaled back as funding issues limit the scope of the project.
“We’re going to have to go for a redesign and rebid and begin the process all over again,” said Victor Machado, chairman of the Somerset Middle School Building Committee. “We’re back to the drawing board.”
On Monday, Special Town Meeting voters rejected an article that would have allowed the town to spend an additional $9,902,435 on the new Somerset Middle School building project, on top of the $85,020,490 that voters approved in the spring of 2021.
Proponents of the new building say the current Somerset Middle School, which opened in the 1960s, sorely needs to be replaced because it is non-compliant with important building codes and accessibility standards, lacks sufficient space for modern classrooms as laid out in state standards and has poor ventilation and outdated plumbing, water drainage and electrical systems.
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At the May 2021 Annual Town Meeting, voters approved funding for the project by a wide majority, with 459 residents voting in favor of the project and 134 against.
But, project leaders said this summer that they needed to request the additional $9.9 after the bids for the project’s construction came back above their $85 million budget.
Machado said the higher-than-expected bids are because of inflation and the increasing cost of construction materials and labor.
“This is not a Somerset issue,” he said. “The districts throughout Massachusetts are experiencing the same.”
Now that the article for additional spending has failed, Machado said they will have to cut back on the initial plan for the new building. He and other members of the building committee along with the superintendent of schools are meeting with the project manager this week to discuss what can be left out. They actually plan to cut $13.5 million in costs from the project, not just $9.9 million, to accommodate the anticipated increases in construction costs over the eight to 10 months that the project must now be delayed.
The new school will have a smaller footprint than originally planned and likely will not have its planned athletic fields or an auditorium. It will also lose some community spaces and will have to reduce the planned number of parking spaces by 50%, Machado said.
“The school that we’re going to receive now is not, in fact, the school that was presented to (voters) in 2021,” Machado said.
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Once new plans for the building are in place, they will have to go through the process of finding bidders for construction again. The redesign should not impact the town’s work with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which has already agreed to reimburse the town up to $31,799,754 of the project’s cost.
Despite the disappointment, Machado said putting the project on hold until the town can fund the initial plan for the new school is not an option. Even if construction costs become somewhat less expensive in the future, they’re unlikely to fall to pre-inflation levels, he pointed out.
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“Any time we wait, we’re maintaining a building that’s way past its useful life. Our school is in rough shape,” he said.
And, he said, it’s not surprising the voters did not have the appetite for absorbing the increased cost.
“I don’t believe people went in there to kill the project,” he said. “It’s understandable. It’s the time that we live in.”
Audrey Cooney can be reached at acooney@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Somerset Middle School project being scaled back; voters reject $9M
