Old Lyme

(Just to make sure you didn't miss it - Salem Building Committee meeting is August 11th and 7pm.  Please plan on attending - read post right before this one. )

What does this have to do with Salem?  Well - there school district recently passed a budget to basically gut their 30 year old high school and rebuild.  I am going to add the links to the articles here for you to read if you would like.

The plan from 2007 was 54 million and that plan was shot down.  This plan was going to build a brand new school in Old Lyme - tear down the old completely from what I can tell.  (there aren't many articles about the 2007 project).  I was able to find a sight where the people in 2007 voted down the 54 million dollar plan - wanted it to be changed and made less.  The charge was to find a less expensive plan.

Sound familiar?

The work began on Old Lyme this summer - now 2010 - and do you know what the cost was for them to leave the outside and work on mostly the inside?  48 million dollars.

WHAT A SAVINGS!!

What is my point?  Remember - this is just my opinion, but really - 3 years later ALL THEY SAVED was 7 million.  The cost of the work....went up.  No kidding.  So by voting it down in 2007, and then having the building committee go at it again to find a less expensive solution.....they saved very little.

And this plan is much bigger than what Salem was proposing.  Our 15 million dollar plan (where the state was going to pay 30%-50% of that) is sounding better and better.

But we are never going to get that plan back now.  Time is ticking away, and as the economy gets better, the price to fix our school will get higher.

And remember - our school is much OLDER than the Old Lyme High School.  Much.older.

So check out the articles.

Here is the PAC from 2007:  READ HERE  (click on the read here and it will take you to the article)

Here is a story in the Day:  HERE

And another story in the Day:  HERE

I am worried that if people think that if we put the project off - try to make it cheaper, or try to do it piecemeal, we are going to be paying the same amount of MORE by waiting.  Prices aren't going to get less with time, so we need to do the renovations now!  And our school is in such need of repair.

We want people to come to Salem.  With the Wyeth people moving to the area - they are going to be looking for nice houses and nice neighborhoods.  Salem can offer both.  But what do you think they are going to say about our 70 year old school?