The largest bond issue in Warwick’s history may have to get a little larger for anything to come out of it.
School Committee Chair Shaun Galligan said he was told last Thursday by LeftField Project Management that due to rising construction costs, the cost to build new Pilgrim and Toll Gate high schools would probably exceed the $350 million approved by voters in 2022.
Galligan said...
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The largest bond issue in Warwick’s history may have to get a little larger for anything to come out of it.
School Committee Chair Shaun Galligan said he was told last Thursday by LeftField Project Management that due to rising construction costs, the cost to build new Pilgrim and Toll Gate high schools would probably exceed the $350 million approved by voters in 2022.
Galligan said he didn’t want to give a specific number as to what the final costs of the planned high schools would be, noting that it could still fall within $350 million, though that was unlikely at this point.
“The number is changing by the hour,” Galligan said Monday. “It’s going up and going down as we continue to add, modify or delete things from the project. If I gave you a number today, the number tomorrow at noon could be different; the number on Wednesday evening during the update could be different. But what I would say is that it’s more probable than not that we’re going to be exceeding the $350-million” ceiling.
The School Committee held a special meeting on Wednesday night focused on school construction and these recent updates. Galligan said that special meetings would likely be held at approximately two-month intervals as construction continues.
So far, construction work has been limited to site preparation, with formal groundbreaking set for spring.
“So long as I’m chair of the School Committee, we will continue to have regular updates for the community on the construction of the new high schools, whether those updates are good updates or bad updates,” Galligan said. “Those will always include what part of the process we are in, what the next step is, are we on time with our timeline, are we on track with our budget and other general points of the project.”
Should the projects end up over budget, the next step Galligan favors would be holding a public referendum on their future, though it’s too late to add a question to next month’s ballot.
The public would then have three options to decide between.
“Do we proceed with constructing schools at $350 million, as approved in 2022, but at a reduced scope?” Galligan said. “If not, then do we proceed with constructing two new high schools at the new estimated cost, knowing that that would be additional money on top of the original bond? If not, then do we cease construction activities?”
School Committee Vice Chair and Democratic candidate for mayor Leah Hazelwood said that she was disappointed about the news, and was also in favor of bringing the issue back to the public for a referendum.
Hazelwood said the residents of Warwick should be the ones to decide whether to pay more for the high schools.
“We value-engineered it as much as we could to make sure that we would have a product that was fitting to offer the community. At this point, we can’t value-engineer it any further,” Hazelwood said. “I can’t speak for the whole committee, but in my opinion, it needs to go back to the voter.”
Patrick Maloney Jr., another mayoral candidate and a former School Committee member, held a press conference about the schools outside City Hall on Friday morning.
Maloney, who said he was the only mayoral candidate who did not believe the schools could get built for $350 million, blasted the city’s mayor, City Council and School Committee for what he called a lack of transparency regarding the design and building process.
“Voters have been deceived, politicians have misled the people with concepts, and taxpayers are once again left holding the bag,” Maloney said. “Not providing accurate information and twisting the truth in presentations is lying, and those involved can not be trusted.”
An even bigger target of his ire was the state Department of Education.
“The Rhode Island Department of Education forced two school proposals down our throats, telling us we have to take two schools or nothing at all,” Maloney said. “As far as I’m concerned, this action by RIDE is manipulative at best, coercive and possibly criminal at worst. Why did Warwick not get the opportunity to build one great high school at a cost the taxpayer could afford?”
Galligan disagreed with Maloney’s assessment of the School Committee, saying that in his tenure as chair, the committee had become more transparent than it had ever been.
“The administration and myself were briefed on the status of the high school projects on Thursday, Oct. 17, and in less than a week’s time, we are now presenting to the community the exact same update,” Galligan said. “We’ve updated our public comment period to reflect recommendations from the ACLU, outreach into the community is substantially greater than ever before…. To state that this School Committee is doing something devious would be disingenuous.”
The Beacon will have coverage of the comments and decisions made at Wednesday night’s special School Committee meeting, held after the Beacon’s weekly publication, in next week’s paper and at warwickonline.com.
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mlowney
This is Patrick Maloney Candidate for Warwick Mayor.
During the Debate as it states in the Warwick Beacon article, Leah said, "she fully trusted the School Building Committee and LeftField Project Management to get the schools built within budget". She went on to say, "We said we’d come in at $350 million. If we’re not going to come in at 350, I wouldn’t expect us to go forward... That would not be fair representation of what we offered the public.” And yet, after the meeting last night at Pilgrim High School she contradicts herself and is pushing forward.
During the Debate as it states in the Warwick Beacon article, Frank said, "Picozzi said that the city could go to the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank for loans, though he noted that whatever happened would be an act of the City Council and emphasized that that was not something he would want to do." So Frank, once again says it's out of his hands and can nothing about it.
I am the only candidate that from the beginning said the 2 schools could not be built for $350 Million. Warwick needs someone in the Mayor's office willing AND ABLE to decipher data. I am a Computer System Network Engineer and Security Expert not a Contractor.
Warwick needs someone willing to stand up and be transparent enough to tell the truth and deliver a message many people might not want to hear. The voters were given misinformation, they voted on mis-information and will lose their homes because of mis-information. We have one chance to do this. Let's do it right.
Please support Patrick Maloney for Mayor of Warwick.
https://warwickonline.com/stories/candidates-field-questions-on-new-school-costs-airport-traffic-speed-cameras-chickens,268316?
Thursday, October 24 Report this
mlowney
Patrick Maloney Jr., another mayoral candidate and a former School Committee member, held a press conference about the schools outside City Hall on Friday morning.
Maloney, who said he was the only mayoral candidate who did not believe the schools could get built for $350 million, blasted the city’s mayor, City Council and School Committee for what he called a lack of transparency regarding the design and building process.
“Voters have been deceived, politicians have misled the people with concepts, and taxpayers are once again left holding the bag,” Maloney said. “Not providing accurate information and twisting the truth in presentations is lying, and those involved can not be trusted.”
Thursday, October 24 Report this