Schools
School Building Committee, Ai3 Start to Sweat Before Town Meeting
The School Building must wait for the Special Town Meeting and Election before they start the next stages of their project. They will have to change their game plan, if the Middle School Project is not approved.
Decisions made at the Special Town Meeting on Monday may determine the future path of the Middle School but for the School Building Committee, any decision will be a welcome one.
Having received the formal letter of approval from Massachusetts School Building Authority on October 5, they now have 120 days from that date to meet any caveats or requirements imposed by the MSBA for the Model School Project.
At this moment in time, the designs have been lodged with the MSBA and the next step is to start applying for the requisite permits and approvals to enable the Project Manager to be able to submit at least 60 percent of the Construction Documents before January 27, 2012.
Find out what's happening in Hinghamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
However, these cannot begin until after Monday’s meeting and may even have to wait until after the Special Town Election on October 29 which will determine whether residents agree that the Town be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition two-and-one-half. A positive vote will allow Hingham to override the property tax increases to address the specific needs of the community, in this case the bonds that will be issued to fund the building of the new Middle School.
Ai3 came across concerned and explained that they are "working at risk" as they have put a lot of effort into this project with no guarantee that it will actually happen.
Find out what's happening in Hinghamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"We have to be prepared for a delay in the anticipated milestones in the construction schedule,” said Jim Jordan, who represented project designers from Ai3.
Jordan said the permitting process can take longer than anticipated and advised that certain approvals need to be in hand before the project can be pushed forward.
As with all major construction projects, an awful lot of work is done before ground is even broken. Over the last year, the School Committee along with designers Ai3 have both put time and effort into ensuring that the Middle School Project continues to remain under budget. On Monday night, they will find out if all the hard work so far has paid off.
