Westport in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Thursday, January 5, 2018
Photos | EverythingWestport.com except as noted
Moby Dick
Marathon marches on in its 22nd year.
Letter to the
Editor: Westport resident questions rush
decision to vote on new school.
|
Moby-Dick Marathon marches on in its 22nd year. Was there
a real Moby Dick? EverythingWestport.com Saturday, January 6, 2018 Photos | EverythingWestport.com Break out the NoDoz,
Stay Awake, Vivarin, caffeine pills or just plain ol’ black coffee by the thermos - the Moby-Dick Marathon is back!
Since 1995, the museum has used the marathon as
a way to mark the anniversary of Melville's 1841 departure from the port of
New Bedford and Fairhaven, aboard the whaling ship Acushnet. Beginning Friday and running through this
weekend, there are new events as well as the traditional readings. Live Webcast The entire marathon will be broadcast
via livestream in a couple of venues within the Museum, as well as online, so enthusiasts around the globe can follow along.
Download the Livestream app from the Google Play Store and iTunes. Follow and share using twitter handle #mdm22 Melville Society Exhibit Opening Dinner, Lecture and Discussion on
Friday, January 6th at 5:40 p.m.
Tickets for members are $40, non-members are $50. Purchase tickets by calling 508.997.0046 x100 or online. Join Melville Society Cultural Project members
in the San Francisco Room as they unveil their newest donations to the
collection. Enjoy a meal well-suited for hungry sailors and an engaging
lecture titled, Melville and Religion: Insights from the Melville Society,
followed by discussion. This is a ticketed event. Was there a real Moby Dick? From 10 a.m. Saturday, until 1 p.m. Sunday,
attendees can enjoy free public activities in addition to the readings
including talks by Melville scholars, book signings, exhibits, theatrical
performances, and more. A Saturday morning 10:00 a.m. children's
marathon launches the free public activities allowing kids of all ages to
read a section of an abridged version of the book by Classic Starts; this
goes on until each child gets their chance to read. 12:00 p.m. The Main Attraction Next, if your name was drawn in the seat raffle,
head to the Seamen’s Bethel to hear Father Mapple’s
rousing sermon. All Seats Have Been Filled as of 1-3-2018 Otherwise, watch a live-stream of the sermon in
Cook Memorial Theater. After the Bethel, readings continue in the Harbor View
Gallery, with the exception of Chapter 40, “Forecastle-Midnight” in the Cook
Memorial Theater with Culture*Park. Sunday, January 7th 8:00 a.m. The
20th-hour Feast 9:30 am Chat with
Melville Scholars Around 1:00 p.m.
Epilogue Click here
for the complete schedule of all events. https://www.whalingmuseum.org/
Above:
images of 2016 Moby Dick Marathon
Photos | EverythingWestport.com Resident
questions rush decision to vote on new school. Everything
Westport.com Monday, January 1, 2018
Letter to the editor: For weighty decisions we must make in life, it has been my experience
that if we can take time to understand the facts, engage in considered
reflection and transparent discussion, and perhaps most importantly, help
each other to ask the right questions, then we will arrive most often at the
best answer.
Unfortunately, right now I must confess that, concerning the matter now
coming before us as town citizens as to whether or not we should build a new
$100 million school for our children in grades 5-12, I do not feel we as
citizens and taxpayers are involved in such a process. Indeed, I feel as if
we are being pushed in front of an on-rushing train, a rush to judgment
impelling us all to make a decision by January 23 at a Town Meeting, and if
approved, thereafter at the ballot box on February 27. (By the way, the rush
to make this decision will be at a time when many Westport voters are either
out of town or unable to get out due to winter weather conditions). For me, the information so far
provided to the public to make this important decision is based almost solely
on emotionally charged and irrational thought. It is reasoning that, so far
as I have seen in published literature and reports, never once mentions the
word “education” or how the construction of a new school will in a measured,
specific way improve the education of our children. And, consider this: Even if we accept as true the rosy estimates put
forth by those who support the construction of the new school and all it has
to offer, that the benefits will: (1) cost a mere $100 million; (2) that the
taxpayers will only need to borrow $58 million for 30 years, these same
taxpayers will shoulder a $100- $150 annual increase in their property taxes
for each $100,000 of valuation in the price of their homes. That’s a
$400-$500 annual increase in their property taxes for 30 years for the owner
of a $400,000 home. This 30-year impost will be added to the
yet-to-be-determined tax increase to pay for the final cost to construct the
new police station. I read what is being written and I listen — and I end up having so many
questions: What is the rush? What are the facts? Where is the transparency and considered deliberation? Most
importantly, what are the right questions, what are the alternatives, and
have they really being considered? Bill Reed Westport EverythingWestport.com Sunday, January 7, 2018
Letter to the editor: Bill Reed, in his recent letter to the editor, asks several important
questions about whether the Town of Westport is rushing into a decision on
whether to build a $100 Million new middle high school. He asks whether we have explored all of the
facts, whether there has been transparency, and whether alternatives have
been considered in reaching a decision that is in the best financial
interests of Westport. As Chair of the
Westport School Building Committee (WSBC), I thank
Mr. Reed for his letter and appreciate the opportunity to address these
issues. We will be holding forums at the Council on Aging on Wednesday, January
17th at noon, and at Westport Business to Business on Thursday, January 18th
at Whites of Westport at 7:30 a.m. To answer the question, “What is the
rush?”, the WSBC has been
working on this project methodically and in public for more than 3 years. At
this point, we are constrained by MSBA requirements
— we have 120 days from the date they approved our project to arrange our
financing. The committee did its due diligence in creating a project that will
serve us for many years. The only “rush” is to follow through on our part so
we can take advantage of the $38.1 million grant from the state, which goes
away if we don’t say yes. The bottom line is this: A
diverse, 20-person committee representing town committees, professions,
income levels, and ages, both with and without children in the Westport
school system, has performed an exhaustive public study, and has agreed on
the solution of an 860-student Grades 5-12 co-located (separate wings for
grades 5-8 and 9-12) middle-high school on the current Middle School
site. We all realize that paying
increased taxes is a hardship, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone who wants to
pay more taxes. The issue is that a
“no” vote comes with more costs further down the road, just as voting no on
the police station did in 2009. In a recent editorial by the New Bedford
Standard Times on Westport’s quest to build a new school (Our View: Proposed middle/high school a good deal for
Westport, December 1, 2017), they state: “There will be some seniors on fixed incomes and lower middle class
families who will struggle with it.
For seniors, there is some abatement relief available. But a decision not to invest in a quality
school system now will only cost those lower-end taxpayers more money in the
long run as the values of their homes fail to keep pace with other
communities, and as the number of parents choosing to educate their children
out of town puts pressure on the programming that Westport schools can
operate. Of the 351 cities and towns
in Massachusetts, Westport currently ranks 21st from the bottom in terms of
its property tax burden. If it builds
the combined middle high school, it will rank 22nd from the bottom of the 351
communities in terms of that burden.
This is a good deal.” Before I outline our process below, please note this: the final
Westport School Building Committee estimate for the town share of the project
is $58.9 million, with a total estimated project cost of $96.9 million. The
plan to combine the High School with the Middle School frees up the existing
High School building, a town asset that was recently appraised for sale in
the amount $6.4 million. These funds can be used to offset the bond. Under
the proposal, the MSBA will also fund approximately
half the estimated cost of $5 million for demolishing and abating the
contaminated Middle School. We estimate that if we had chosen to build just a
new grade 5-8 Middle School now and then come back in 10 years to replace a
grade 9-12 High School, the Town would pay an additional $96 million in costs
over a 30-year period (operating costs, maintenance costs, building and
borrowing costs without MSBA funding) to achieve
the same result we can have now for a Town share of $58.9M.
This is a much costlier version of what happened when the Town did not
replace the fire and police stations at the same time. The High School was built in 1951, with an addition in 1972, and will
need to be replaced in the near future at ever increasing building and
interest rate costs, and at a time when the MSBA
may very well not be willing, as it is now, to pay nearly 50% of the eligible
costs of replacement. We are conservatively estimating that each month delay in construction
will add at least $200,000* to the cost due to rising building costs. Additionally, out of the 10 schools that
the MSBA has approved to build this year, the MSBA has ranked our proposed school as the lowest cost
school out of these 10, thanks to an efficient design. The WSBC has been meeting since February
2015. During this time, we first
secured $700K in funds at Town Meeting in May 2015
to conduct a feasibility study examining every reasonable alternative to
solve Westport’s education needs brought about by the closing of the PCB contaminated
Westport Middle School. This study,
jointly funded by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, was
exhaustive. We hired a project
management team, Daedalus Projects, and an architect, Jonathan Levi
Architects, who guided us through the process of looking at 5 different grade
configurations, ( a 5-8 school, a 6-8 school, a 5-12 school, a 6-12 school
and a 7-12 school), 24 different building options, including abatement and
remediation of the present middle school, renovation and addition to the
present high school, and many different building configurations, and 3
different building sites (the High School site, Middle School site, and a
Farm site behind the high school, all Town-owned properties.) Most school districts go into the Feasibility Study phase looking at
only one site and only one grade configuration. Because we wanted to make
sure that we would be providing the Town with the most cost-effective
solution for the present and future needs of the Westport Community Schools,
we took the time and made the effort to examine every avenue before arriving
at a solution. The goal of the Feasibility Study was
to find the most cost-effective alternative over a 30-year period (looking at
construction costs, maintenance costs, and borrowing costs) which would solve
Westport’s education needs now for the future. We believe that our proposed
860-student co-located 5-12 middle high school located on the present
Westport Middle School site is the best solution for both Westport’s
education needs and is fiscally the best solution available. In looking at the High School site and the Farm Site, we met with
Conservation Committee Agent Chris Capone to evaluate the viability of these
sites. Both the High School and Farm
sites had significant wetland issues that resulted in a smaller area of
buildable land. With the Farm Site, we would have required special approvals and
increased costs to replicate the wetlands that would have been impacted. These issues made building on the High
School and Farm sites more expensive and time consuming (with the additional
time frame for the State approvals for wetland conservation) than building on
the Middle School site. Building on
the High School site would have also required a temporary swing space for
students presently attending the High School, which would have increased
costs that are not eligible for MSBA
reimbursement. Also, we took into
consideration the fact that the MSBA would
reimburse the costs for the abatement and demolition of the present middle
school only if we built on the Middle School site. All of our meetings have been public and videotaped and can be found on
the Town’s website and accessed through Vimeo. We have had several televised updates
before the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee, the Finance Committee,
and the Capital Improvement Planning Committee, and have had 3 public forums
as well as presentations before the Town Department Heads, Westport Business
to Business, and other interested parties. The proposed grade 5-12 school will house 60 percent of our student
population under one roof, house 80 percent of our students on one campus,
and improve the campus site with a state-of-the-art denitrification septic
system and new well that will tie in the Elementary School and Library. It
will have new regulation-size athletic fields, an elevated indoor community
walking track, new Diane B. Snyder memorial tennis courts and relocated
memorial garden, new efficient plumbing fixtures for the Westport Elementary
School, fire hydrants, a full sprinkler system, and improvements to site
traffic, access, egress, and parking. Please join us at the ongoing opportunities to discuss this project and
learn why it is our best solution. Dianne M. Baron, Chair
Westport School Building Committee * $200,000 per month is a conservative figure based on 4%
per month construction inflation. The
total construction cost is $80 Million.
4% of $80M equals $3.2M
per year or $266,000 per month. © 2017 Community Events of
Westport. All rights reserved. EverythingWestport.com |
