Hamel wants new MMS smaller, won't support $26-million

Councilor Bob Hamel (Ward 5) last night dramatically declared he would not vote to borrow $26-million to build a new middle school on the edge of Opechee Park. "You don't need a building this size," he told a joint meeting of City Council and School Board at City Hall, adding that he wanted to see six to eight-thousand square-feet cut from the project before it would merit his support.

Hamel announcement, months ago, that he would vote to build a new school — versus attempting to renovate the current structure — angered a number of the people who worked for his election last fall but was music to the ears of others who where working hard to form a broad political base for the project. His position left Armand Bolduc (Ward 6) as the only outright opponent of a new school on the council.

Positive votes from four of the six councilors will be necessary to authorize the sale of the general obligation municipal bonds that will be used to fund the new school. Mayor Matt Lahey — a big supporter of the project — has outlined a timetable that has councilors approving a final reading of the bond authorization by mid-September. A public hearing on the matter will be held at the Belknap Mill on August 23 at 7 p.m.

Hamel said last night that he remains in favor of building a new school, but not at a cost of $26-million. He said he doesn't want to cut corners on quality so that only leaves one option — make it smaller. "If we do this (at $26-million) there won't be enough (money left) to go around (to other city departments)," he said."

During the meeting he did not stake out his new — or clarified — position in terms of dollars, but afterwards he said the price tag was going to have to get down in the $22 or $23-million range before the project gets his vote.

A quiet meeting that largely concerned itself with detailed explanations from school Superintendent Bob Champlin of some of the items in the overall construction budget was all but over when Bolduc sparked a dramatic turn by handing out a chart that was published in "School Planning & Management" magazine that indicated the national average size for a middle school with 750 students was 112,000-square-feet. "You're building 118,000-square-feet for 650 children," he said.

"I'm getting a lot of response (about the $26-million)," Bolduc told his colleagues, and it's not good." "People can't afford it."

Bolduc suggested shrinking some rooms down in size and, perhaps, stacking a planned 3,500-square-foot general meeting room on top of the planned cafeteria to reduce the overall size of the building footprint. "It's cheaper to go up than out," he said.

School Board member Scott Vachon reminded Bolduc that the joint committee had looked at a smaller, more compact building that was proposed for the middle of Opechee Park but it had been rejected because of a strong public reaction against losing athletic field space.

(Rist-Frost Shumway President Chris Shumway has explained the school design currently on the table is "less efficient" in terms of space used because it had to be designed to the site in a way that would avoid the park playing fields.)

Hamel jumped in with the observation that the current enrollment at Memorial Middle School (MMS) is only in the mid 500s and the the current school has but 103,000-square-feet.

Lahey, clearly exasperated by the turn the meeting had taken, challenged both Bolduc and Hamel to be specific. "What would you cut?" he asked. "You're speaking in generalities. . .you have no specifics."

Councilor Brenda Baer (Ward 4) agreed with the mayor, saying she believed councilors had moved well beyond this point. "We accepted the plan," she said. "We saved the fields. . .there were no qualms. . .now we either fund it or we don't."

After Baer accused him of "nitpicking", Hamel responded that he didn't consider $26-million to be nitpicking.

In response to a question from Councilor Henry Lipman (Ward 3), Bonnette Page & Stone President Randy Remick pointed to the general meeting room and two team locker rooms as being the only spaces included in the current plans that might be out of the ordinary for schools of this size. He guessed that perhaps $1-million might be saved by eliminating them.

The locker rooms are being provided for high school students — in addition to normal space for the middle school students — because Sachem athletic teams use Opechee Park facilities for a number of varsity and sub-varsity sports.

Shumway and Champlin both came to the defense of the general meeting room.

Shumway pointed out the a curtain wall between the meeting room space and the gymnasium can be pulled pack to make one big room for events such as graduation. And he noted the combined size of the space is still smaller than the current MMS gym, which is significantly larger than found at a typical middle school.

Champlin said he did not consider having both a cafeteria and a general meeting room to be at all out of the ordinary for a modern middle school and called the meeting room a "critical factor in bringing groups together".

The superintendent and Lahey also insisted no excess classroom space was being planned. "Every classroom has a place (in the education program)," said Champlin.

Lahey described the classroom space provided for as "tight".

The design on the table calls for constructing a new one-story building on the northern two-thirds of the existing footprint — which would house the gym, library, cafeteria, meeting room and offices. Classrooms would be in a three-story wing attracted to the northwest corner of the building and extending westward into Opechee Park, toward the Little League field. The south end of the building would sit north of the current facility, expanding the parking lot and distancing the school from Clairmont Street. The new building would face the park, instead of McGrath Street.

City Manager Eileen Cabanel reminded the joint committee members that under state law a separate building committee — with equal representation from City Council and the School Board — would actually manage a school construction project, and that the members of that committee would be elected by their peers.