WHITMAN – The Select Board voted to hold a special Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 30 and a special election on Saturday, Nov. 4 to allow residents to vote on a debt exclusion for the new Whitman Middle School.
WMS Building Committee Chair Fred Small said at the Select Board’s meeting on Tuesday, April 18 that the project manager and architect, AI3, delaying vote for few months could possibly mean additional costs for the project.
He said the original presentation had the process leading to a ballot question culminating this October.
“They want to hang in, because as they’ve told me, ‘We want the project after the fact,” Small said. “That’s what the goal is.”
He noted that Building Committee member John Galvin had proposed an Oct. 30 special Town Meeting, followed by Nov. 4 ballot vote. He said it would get a resolution in line with the OPM and architects’ timeline.
“It perhaps may not be the beautiful hot weather of May that I know we’re going to get, but I think we could look forward to some decent weather in November and most certainly won’t have to wait, if we delayed, until the January timeline [when] we could have a inclement weather day that may prevent people from coming out,” Small said. “I think everyone’s on the same page – the goal is to have as many folks that want to get out to the polls and vote, be able to do so, and I wholeheartedly believe that that October/November time line would work to that effect.”
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, having spoken with the town clerk, said the main concern is the October and November dates would be set before the final MSBA meeting and vote on funding the project. That meeting is slated for Oct. 25 or 26.
If the MSBA did not support funding for Whitman, the Town Meeting could be cancelled, but the ballot could not.
Galvin said Colliers, the OPM, Whitman would not be attending that MSBA meeting unless the project was “all set.”
“This is not something they’re going to look at and say, ‘Oh, no. You’ve got to fix this, this this and this,” Galvin said. “This is a meeting where everything is in order. It’s pretty much a congratulatory move forward.”
He said Whitman would be taken off the agenda weeks before that meeting if the project were not at a point to move ahead.
If Town Meeting rejects the project, the ballot question would still go forward and the town would have one year to allocate the funds for that or a similar project.
Buildable designs would not be produced until after funds have been allocated, Small said, because the town is not paying for those designs as of yet. Galvin added that October would decide the schematic design funds with construction plans not completed for another year with costs calculated by an independent estimator before bids and go out to contractors.
“No matter what the timetable was, and within any MSBA project, you would never have those buildable plans when you’re voting to go to a Town Meeting and then a debt exclusion vote,” Small said. “It just doesn’t happen. We will have a lot of things narrowed down.”
In other business, the board held a public hearing concerning the application for a livery license and livery driver’s certificate for the premises at 56 Vincent St., by Mary Fries DBA All-Star Transports. The board approved the application unanimously.
Proof of registration of the vehicle with the RMV as one to be used as a Mass. Livery vehicle, updated insurance certificate and license fees.
She said she has been doing the same kind of work for other people for almost 20 years and wanted to try doing it on her own to provide livery services to the local community, whether going into Boston to the airport or out of state.
She said she had just obtained the vehicle and is in the process of obtaining the needed certifications, but required Select Board approval first.
The board won’t issue a license for the business at this stage, but the vote will mean F wil receive a letter stating they approved her application so she can to go to the next step in the process of getting the livery plates from the RMV.