Town Council Gets School District Office Plan Update

By Chris Paul

During the final Town Council meeting of 2021 members received a brief update on the plans to rebuild the school district office advancement to Town Hall.

School Board member Bob Slater and volunteer Tony DeFrancesco attended the meeting and spoke about the latest plan updates.

Slater started by saying that they had received some preliminary pricing and that they would be working toward a presentation to the School Board on Thursday, Jan. 6.

A Pubic Hearing on the proposal is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, Jan. 18 at the Londonderry High School cafeteria.

The Town Council was shown renderings of the building proposed which will mirror the existing Town Hall structure.

Slater also mentioned that he knew something would need to be done through the town and school attorneys in regards to a lease of the land in order for the bond company to move forward.

He told the council he just wanted to make that was being looked at in case they need to move quickly with the plans.

Town Council chairman John Farrell asked the Town Solicitor, Mike Malaguti if he had been in tough with the school’s attorney and Malaguti explained that they had sent over an agreement earlier in December but were waiting for a response.

It was explained that the final day to put something on the Town Ballot was Jan. 17.

DeFrancesco reiterated the idea that he wanted to make sure that the town and school district are both moving forward with the goal of putting the proposal on the ballot in March.

Farrell said that in order to move forward on the town side, they would need to receive a consensus from the School Board by the Town Council’s next meeting on Jan. 10.

DeFrancesco responded that he was hoping to have that consensus by Jan. 6.

When asked how large the building was going to be they explained it would be 2,775 square feet of office space not including hallways, stairways and elevators and it would be about 20 percent less space than where the district is currently. There are currently 24 employees using that space.

When asked about the overall number that this would cost neither of the two men presenting were prepared to give that amount.

Councilor Deb Paul voiced some concern with the dollar amount being bonded and was assured that those concerns could be raised during the upcoming public hearing.

It was also stated in the meeting that the town had about $300,000 allocated for the project.

Councilor Tom Dolan wanted to make sure the same problems that forced the initial building to be torn down do not occur in the new building.

Slater responded by explaining that the building codes were far less stringent years ago.

During the last School Board, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, meeting Slater gave his fellow members an update on the time line to move forward and also let them know they have proposed a smaller floor plan to reduce the cost of construction.