Stonington school project to cost $3.5 million less than what was approved
Stonington — The renovation and expansion of Deans Mill and West Vine Street schools will cost taxpayers about $3.5 million less than the $69 million in bonding approved by voters.
With $27 million in state funding, the project will end up costing taxpayers about $38.5 million.
K-12 School Building Committee Rob Marseglia announced the expected savings during Wednesday night’s Board of Finance meeting.
He told the board that the goal of the building committee since the start of the projects was to use quality materials to ensure the two schools will last another 50 years without the need for any work other than routine maintenance.
He said there is an estimated $850,000 savings at West Vine Street School and $2.5 million at Deans Mill. In addition, there was a $200,000 savings from the Pawcatuck Middle School roof project.
The savings, which Marseglia called a “decent chunk of change,” occurred even though additional costs were incurred to remove all the asbestos and PCB contamination from the two schools.
Marseglia said work at West Vine essentially is finished while the work at Deans Mill is estimated to be done in October or November. He added the parking lot at Deans Mill will be paved before school classes begin next month.
Marseglia suggested that the bonding savings could offset the more than $4 million in high school and middle school repairs being discussed as part of a potential $6.9 million bonding request voters would need to approve later this year.
The savings, however, cannot be directly spent on the proposed school projects. Instead, funding for them would have to be approved as part of a new bond.
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