School district closing in on $22M project
After several years of tussling with how to improve aging school infrastructure, the Saugerties Board of Education received a proposal Tuesday night for a capital improvement project that, according to board President Robert Thomann, “just might work.”
Principals from the architectural and engineering firm Tetra Tech, and its partner, BBL Construction Services, gave a presentation at Tuesday’s board meeting that outlined steps toward accomplishing the board’s goals for $22 million.
Previously, Thomann said, “another group we contracted with proposed a $60 million project. We weren’t satisfied with it.”
Thomann said the previous proposal included things there weren’t really needed, “like a baseball field.” He noted that the Cantine Field sports complex is across the street from Saugerties High School.
This new proposal seems more realistic, Thomann said, because “the goal is to upgrade the facilities but not burden the taxpayer.”
The oldest of the Saugerties school buildings is a genuine antique: Cahill Elementary School, built in 1907. Riccardi Ele
mentary School was built in 1938, and the junior/senior high school dates to 1957.
“The average age [of the buildings] is 69 years,” said Jim Bouffard, Tetra Tech’s project manager.
After the Tetra Tech presentation on how the project would proceed, Chris DeCarol, a senior financial analyst with Bernard P. Donegan Inc., presented a complex financial analysis of the project.
With a number of different variables in the equation, including the interest rate on bonds that would be issued to help pay for the project, the upshot was this: School district property taxes should be able to remain steady over the long haul.
DeCarol said the district’s current bond debt will “drop off” in two years, and the capital improvement project can begin bond debt in June 2022 at about the same rate, keeping expenditures level.
“Right now,” Bouffard said, “we’re at the very beginning of the pre-referendum phase. We’ve got to analyze what will give Saugerties the most bang for the buck.”
The initial timeline is shaped by a December 2020 deadline, when the district plans to hold a voter referendum on bonding.
Tetra Tech and BBL Construction Services plan to establish school board priorities and estimate construction costs by August. There then will be a new project presentation, hopefully in September.
“I invite the public to come to one of our Facilities Committee meetings,” Thomann said, adding that the next one will be on Wednesday, March 18.