GEBHART COMMENTS:

Made after the public comment session

Tonight is about hope. It’s about being brave. It’s about the future.

I heard two themes tonight, and I think they’re both valid. Fear, and faith. Fear of the cost, fear they’ll be taxed into poverty, fear that this body has abdicated its duty or has misled you. Fear that it’ll cost more, we’ll get less, it won’t work out. And faith- faith that this team who has worked so hard to put together a plan is not deceiving us, is not pulling a bait-and-switch, faith that when they voted for these schools and it passed, that it meant they got them. And faith that what today is a conceptual plan materializes into something that meets our expectations.

A quote- “Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose.”

So, tonight we choose. Fear or faith.

The question we need to ask ourselves is what is our north star. What guides us, what do we strive for? What do we envision for the next generation of our youth?

Every resolution we write starts with this powerful language- “Whereas, the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Warwick are matters of paramount importance to the City Council.”

So I ask my colleagues- if our goal is to support the health, the safety and the welfare of the citizens of this great city- what option furthers that? Is it kicking the can down the road, is it waiting for RIDE funds to be depleted? Is it waiting for construction costs to continue to escalate? Pre-pandemic historical construction escalation ranges from two to four percent annually. Is it responsible for us to gamble on a plan we have today, a plan that the voters approved, to punt this project five years down the road, with costs between 10-20 percent higher?

Or is it taking the brave step to support our youth, to support the long-term success of our city, empowering the school department to design, engineer and build two world-class learning facilities? This option protects our future, it protects your investment in what is most people’s biggest asset- their home. If you took your exact home from Hoxsie or Conimicut or Potowomut, it would instantly appreciate in value. Do you know why? The quality, caliber and investment those communities make in their educational system.

“Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

So tonight, I take the brave step, the first step to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Warwick and approve this bond.

LADOUCEUR COMMENTS:

Made before the meeting

This is ridiculous! The school department has dramatically changed the scope of work and more importantly changed the sales pitch that was spoon fed to the voters in 2022. Two weeks after the election, they basically said what I said in a ¾ page ad I ran in the Beacon two weeks before the election, which was basically “Oh, we don’t think we can build them for $350,000,000.” We need to rethink this. I told them that long before the election as well as after the election and again today.

In the home improvement world, it’s called “bait and switch.” Show them one thing and deliver something very different.

You changed the sales pitch, you took away many of the frills, eliminated some of the things you were selling the public on “because they were so important.” The taxpayers/voters deserve to revote on the real package and not the illusions. The people need to demand a revote. They deserve another bite at the apple just like the school department has had!