High School Building Committee Considering Sturdier Roof

The committee overseeing the design and construction of a new is mulling whether to make the roof resistant to high wind gusts.

At its most recent meeting the discussed installing a roof on the new building that would be resistant to winds of up to 140 miles per hour. Such a roof would cost about $3 to $3.50 per square foot. The roof of the proposed building would be 90,000 square feet and bolstering it to make it more resistant to high winds would cost between $3000,000 to $400,000.

The town’s Emergency Shelter Committee had requested that the school building panel look into the roof option. However, building committee members who attended the July 31 meeting suggested the cost increase might be too high to accommodate. The building will review the estimate with the emergency shelter panel.

Other updates in the high school building process include:

• The construction manager on the project ---- O&G-Fusco --- will submit the cost estimate for the design phase by Aug. 28.
• The committee has developed a new list of “frequently asked questions” on the project and posted them on the high school project’s website.
• The building committee will meet on Aug. 20 to hear input from the coaches of outdoor sports at the high school.
• The committee will meet with officials from the state’s Office of Policy and Management on Sept. 4, 5 and 6 to discuss the project.

The town for years has discussed building a new high school and voters at a referendum last June approved spending $92 million to build a new school that would address numerous educational deficiencies identified in the current building.

The project calls for a three-story, 211,000-square-foot building that would be built on the site of the current high school on New England Road.

The state has approved reimbursing the town 31 percent, or $28.6 million, of the project’s costs, leaving the town to pay for the remaining $63.6 million.

The timeline for the project calls for construction to begin next year. Once the construction is completed the existing high school building will be demolished.