Cost-benefit analysis: Whittier Tech building project debated

Re “Sticker shock hits Essex County voters” (Page A1, Jan. 16): The proposed $444.6 million Whittier Tech project is shockingly expensive and leaves more questions than answers.

Officials at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School are using an alternative project delivery method called construction management at-risk, where the construction manager/general contractor is selected before final design and cost estimates are complete. This method puts the taxpayer at risk of profit-driven scope and price increases. Whittier hired the consultant LeftField to represent the public’s interest as project manager. Yet the cost of the project was estimated by Consigli, the same company that will profit from the project.

Why should we trust a profitdriven company to hold down costs when Consigli doesn’t represent taxpayers and, according to the state manual “Designing and Constructing Public Facilities,” has no obligation to protect our interests on a construction management at-risk project?

Whenever I consider making an investment, I want to do my due diligence. Whittier should do the same. I will be voting no on Jan. 23 because when we invest public funds, we need to ensure we are doing it right. OWEN SMITH Newburyport

Why should we trust a profit-driven company to hold down costs?

I hope the residents in our 11 communities will look past the noise, finger pointing, and misleading information when deciding how to vote on Tuesday. A fact we should all be able to agree on is that the present Whittier Tech building is subpar and unsafe. Repairing the existing structure makes no sense and would be more expensive than a new building since the proposed project would be supported by public funding.

Some have suggested pausing the project and going back to the drawing board. This ignores the fact that a building committee of representatives from at least 8 of the 11 communities worked for four years to come up with an appropriate design. The final design was ultimately approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority and $180 million was appropriated, or about 40 percent of the total cost of the project. If it goes forward, the school is set to open in September 2028.

Going back to the drawing board would forfeit the building authority funding, and any prospect of a new school building would be set back years, if not decades. This would condemn about 1,280 students as well as staff to continue to work in a building that itself should be condemned. And as we have seen again and again, if we wait for some future opportunity, the price tag will be much higher.

I hope our district’s residents will vote yes for a state-ofthe-art Whittier building. It would a good investment in our students, our communities, and our future economy. INGE BUERGER Groveland

Repairing the existing structure would be more expensive than a new building.

In an era of desperation for affordable and workforce housing solutions, the sentiments expressed by Newburyport Mayor Sean Reardon and Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove in Billy Baker’s story about Whittier Tech’s price tag are remarkably tone-deaf.

Reardon claims his city can’t afford to contribute $30 million toward a new building at Whittier, which currently has 29 students from Newburyport. He instead ought to be asking himself, “Why are we only sending 29 kids to Whittier?”

The answer is simple: With their lack of investment toward workforce housing and socioeconomic diversity, the governments in Newburyport and Amesbury have for decades been complicit in displacing workforce families whose children may be more likely to value an education at Whittier. Newburyport and Amesbury residents will pay for this in one way or another. The lack of a healthy population of tradespeople in their communities strains the available local labor supply, which means soaring prices to renovate and maintain the areas’ many million-dollar homes.

However you pay it, the price is steep for failing to protect the workforce within your residential base. JARED PENDAK Bradford, Vt.

The writer is a native of Rowley, which is a member of the Whittier Tech sending district, and a current member of the Bradford, Vt., Planning Commission.