Mixed Sentiments for CCHS Building Committee at Public Forum

The CCHS Building Committee held a public forum in the last Wednesday, Aug. 22, to recap how things have been going since which threatened to cancel state funding for the new school. The letter was sent because the Massachusetts School Building Authority was concerned that the original scope of the project was not reflecting the latest design documents, which ballooned the .

Wednesday night's forum saw more than 100 Concord and Carlisle residents show up to voice either their continued support for the project and the CCHS Building Committee or detail their outrage over the project's progress.

The Word from the Building Committee

Several members of the CCHS Building Committee began by explaining how the project is “back on track,” and they are confident with the new design plan, which brings the project back down to a roughly $79 million dollar cap.

The CCHS Building Committee expressed this new design plan will satisfy residents and the MSBA. The CCHS Building Committee has scheduled an . The CCHS Building Committee expressed they were confident the project will resume on schedule with this new design plan.

Before taking a host of comments, concerns and questions from officials and then the public, Building Committee co-Chair Stan Durlacher extablished the staging for the forum.

“Concerns have been raised that the schematic [original design] is different from the current design development phase and does not represent what the Town voted for at Town Meeting," said Durclacher, assuring the crowd with a familiar phrase that continued to pop up throughout the night from officials that things were “back on track."

“We will be documenting and will try to answer all questions asked and concerns raised to relate both to the MBSA and answer questions for the public," he said.

The Word from Officials

A host of Concord and Carlisle government officials from gave speeches showing their continued support of the project and the committee.

Doug Stevenson, from the Carlisle Board of Selectmen, said he “believes CCHS' plan still has widespread support."

"A small, but very vocal [group] from the Concord and Carlisle community don't represent our whole communities opinion," he said. "We cannot allow dissent and disagreement to threaten this important grant.”

Many other officials took a similar stance.

“Even though the process has raised issues and concerns, we continue to support this project," said Concord selectmen Chairwoman Carmen Reiss, speaking on behalf of her board.

Fabian Fondriest, chairman of the regional school committee, said his board is in favor of the design and committed to supporting the CCHS Building Committee.

Other officials, including the Carlisle Finance Committee, CCHS Principal Peter Badalament, and Louise Haldeman, a member of Concord's Citizen's Transportation Committee, all showed their support for the project and CCHS Building Committee's current track.

The Word for the Public

The upset over the budget ballooning nearly $20 million was led by Concord resident, David Allen, who stated he was “violently in favor of the school [being built] and enormously grateful to the CCHS Building Committee,” but also expressed that a group of Concord and Carlisle residents were upset over the inflated costs and the project getting off-track in the first place.

Allen said community members were also “upset over this meeting date,” which fell during a high vacation time and doesn't give the committee enough time to understand the “up-swell of concern.” Allen later added that residents are being pacified with this meeting. “For this to work in any fashion, tonight is not the night, the meeting was conveyed quickly, this process should start a month from now," he said.

Allen and his constituents also handed out a letter they wrote to the committee bringing up some key concerns, including that the plans still show the removal of the transportation building, which may not be required under the design. Allen still feels the current design is substantially different targeting a “shrunken building footprint," fewer windows and dated design. Lastly, Allen was concerned about the nearby landfill under the parking lots and how this will impact overall costs and whether it will be a “safety hazard for students and abutters.”

Other residents, such as Carlisle resident Stan Loucks echoed Allen's key points over the costs and removal of the transportation building and, potentially, in-house transportation for Concord. A former committee member, Loucks begged the community to curtail this kind of attitude towards spending.

Most vehemently opposed to the way the CCHS Building Committee has handled the project was Concord resident David Stevens, who angrily addressed the committee.

“A large mess of people are saying, 'We do not trust you,'" said Stevens. "We give you large sums of money and we don't always know what you do with it. ... As long as you get what you want, you don't care.

"I'm going to suggest a solution to this, you have to make up your mind that Concord can't afford it or you will continue to have this kind of difficulty," he said. "I also think the MSBA should refuse this plan until we have more time to talk about it.”

Stevens went on to request the resignation of a few building committee members who he still felt were responsible for the mistakes in the over-inflated design costs.

Stevens' anger towards the building committee was countered by a number of residents who stood up to defend the committee.

Concord resident Tim Dibble said the anger was only coming from a “small, vocal minority at the extremes” and tried to assure the committee that the overall majority of the community, as represented by the 84 percent approval vote for the project at Town Meeting.

Dibble and other residents defending the CCHS Building Committee for their time and energy put into this project and getting it “back on track” were met with cheers from the audience.

What's Next?

The CCHS Building Committee will now take all further questions and concerns to review internally and bring them to this Wednesday's meeting with the MSBA where they will see if they have re-secured the grant and truly find out if the project is “back on track.”

Anyone who would like to send a question, comment or concern related to the CCHS School Building Project shoud contact CCHS Building Committee Co-Chair Stan Durlacher at sdurlacher@cchsbuilding.org.

For more on the CCHS Building Committee and their project, visit their official website at http://www.cchsbuilding.org/index.html.