ROCHESTER, N.H. -- City Councilors voted 10-2 Tuesday night to approve a $4.8 million bond for upgrades to Rochester's career technical center, although the project won't move forward if a state Senate committee doesn't approve $12 million in state funding for the work.
The Richard W. Creteau Technology Center project required at least nine yes votes from the 13-member board in order to pass. Councilors Tom Abbott and Bob Gates were the dissenting votes, while Donald Hamann was absent.
Mayor Caroline McCarley was among those outspoken Tuesday night in support of the project, which is scheduled go before the state Senate's Capital Budget Committee at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
"We've been in line for this for about 24 years," she said. "I think it is critically, critically important for our business community and for our students."
Peter Lachapelle and Ralph Torr were among the councilors who expressed reluctance about approving the project, citing the fact that it would be difficult for the city to fund both the Creteau Center upgrades and other sizable bond projects forecasted for upcoming years, including multiple public works bonds.
"I'm going to support this, but some of that stuff has got to go," said Lachapelle.
Abbott and Gates didn't explain their no votes during Tuesday's council meeting.
The Creteau Center project requires state Senate approval in order to move forward because the New Hampshire House of Representatives recently removed from the state's budget funding for a more expansive, $24 million version of the project.
The House cited the fact that the City Council took only a non-binding vote in March to commit to funding the city's 25-percent share of the work. City officials have repeatedly said they did everything they believed was needed to get the House's green light.
"I thought we did show that support," McCarley reiterated Tuesday while expressing that city officials will be present during Friday's Senate hearing to request that the state contribute the money.
The scaled-back $16.8 million project the City Council endorsed Tuesday still upgrades Creteau Center equipment, aids each of the center's 16 programs and modernizes a 1991 building that, according to school and city officials, is no longer fully functional under today's education and workforce standards.
The project includes moving the culinary arts program from the second floor to the first to make it more accessible and meaningful to the public, update the front entrance, enhance security, and demolish a small one-story building that Whitehead said would cost more to fix than replace.
The old $24 million proposal featured more extensive room and building layout reconfigurations.
Tuesday's vote came after a public hearing on the project, although that hearing ended quickly because Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky was the only member of the public to speak.
Volinsky offered his support and said he'd be "happy" to do whatever he can in Concord to help the project gain state funding.
Architect Lance Whitehead, of Lavallee Bensinger Architects, also provided an overview of the proposed renovations and improvements Tuesday evening.
Whitehead's overview estimated that the project will cost roughly $16.56 million, with $4.54 million footed by from the city and $12.02 million from the state. Of the project's total cost, $13.86 stems from construction, according to Whitehead's presentation.
Whitehead said if the City Council and Senate both approve the project's funding by this summer, it would allow for construction to start in the summer of 2018.
Deputy Mayor Ray Varney said last month that if the city bonds $4.8 million for the project at an anticipated interest rate of 4 percent, by the time the 20-year bond is paid off the project would cost Rochester "a little over $7 million."
Varney repeated that point Tuesday night, stating he wanted to "make sure councilors know what they're voting for" and that future councils will have to contend with a bond that will add 17 or 18 cents to the tax rate.
"This will preclude a number of other projects," he said before voting in support of the bond.
