With questions unanswered, Warwick City Council delays school bond vote

WARWICK, R.I. — The City Council Monday night held off of voting on whether to put an $85 million school bond on the ballot in November because council members said the plan as presented was incomplete.

The council recessed with plans to reconvene Jan. 30 at 6 p.m. to vote on the proposal. If it is to make the November ballot, the proposed bond issue must be passed by the City Council and submitted to the state Department of Education by Feb. 1.

Warwick City Hall

A seething City Council President Joseph J. Solomon complained bitterly that the city's bond lawyer was not at the meeting, where the council was expected to vote on $85 million in borrowing.

He also said the city needed to provide the council with a fiscal note saying how much the borrowing would actually cost.

He also questioned whether the council members could even vote on the proposal as presented because it lacked a required form that was supposed to be submitted for City Council approval and submission to the General Assembly asserting the bond resolution met all legal requirements.

Several council members said they were reluctant to vote for an $85 million bond to renovate school buildings they said should be closed down and replaced instead.

"Some of these schools you are trying to repair need to be torn down," Ward 5 Councilman Edgar Ladouceur said.

The School Committee is seeking $85 million for an array of improvements.

When broken down by grade level, the district's elementary schools would get $48.4 million, with the high schools set for $18.2 million and middle school buildings targeted for $12.2 million in work.

When looked at by type or work, the most frequent kind of improvement sought is for heating and air conditioning related, with $34 million of the bond set for that work. Handicapped-access improvements, such as door-opening systems, restroom work and elevator replacements, was priced at $11.5 million; exterior improvements, such as window replacements and doors, was expected to cost $10.7 million.

When the committee first presented a draft proposal to the City Council in November, it included $34 million to build two new elementary schools. That was in the request at the urging of the state Department of Education, which last summer issued a report that found school districts across the state were in serious need of new buildings. The state didn't mandate the new schools be built, but it did urge the districts to research how much they would cost.

After enduring a year of recent school closings, City Council members were cool to the idea when presented on Nov. 19.

School Building Committee Chairman Anthony Ferrucci, also the district's finance director, said the amount was "financially unsupportable."

"It would be nice if it were affordable," he said in a Dec. 12 report on the Building Committee's deliberations, "but it appears to be unaffordable at this time."

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