Land, land everywhere but not a drop to use

Land, land everywhere but not a drop to use
Mark Haranas
Assistant Managing Editor

If you drive around Templeton you’ll see some open space or woodlands and shout, “Why not build the school there? Or there?!”

If it was only that easy.

Finding suitable land to built a proper elementary school on has been arguably Templeton’s biggest hurdle in the past decade possibly for the Massachusetts School Building Authority as well.

Officials came to the realization earlier this year that their hopes of building a new school on Templeton Developmental Center land wouldn’t work. That’s just one of the many low-blows the project has taken in recent years.

If anyone has any doubt about how dire the need is for a new school, just ask Board of Selectmen Chairman and former longtime School Committee member John Columbus. Did I mention that he sat in the exact same classrooms Templeton children are sitting in today?

“I actually went to Templeton Center in the 1950s,” said Mr. Columbus. “It was past its prime then.”

The school was built in 1923 and was deemed as an unsuitable learning environment by a state study a few years ago. Additionally, Baldwinville Elementary is pushing its 100th birthday. Let’s hear what parents and teachers have to say about the issue.

“It is no longer a situation where we can make due with what we have, insufficient heat, inefficient plumbing, undersized classrooms, lack of recreational areas, limited cafeteria space, etc., are daily issues,” said Gina Agnelli, who worked in a kindergarten classroom at Templeton Center and previously substituted in all of Narragansett’s elementary schools, in a recent letter. “Music, physical education and art suffer.” Parent Matthew Syring took a tour of Baldwinville Elementary School last year and said this in a letter, “If I had to summarize my findings in one word deplorable.”

I could go on and on, but most Templeton residents know all of this already.

LAND ISSUES

Project and school officials have been searching for land for years knocking on all doors hoping to find a needle in the haystack.

There’s been several Request for Proposals sent out, although all proposals have failed at this point in time due to either excessive amounts of wetlands on the property or the cost being too expensive.

This is really no one’s fault.

I can remember attending a meeting years ago about the project, and officials just didn’t know how to proceed forward after so many failed attempts, while MSBA was getting impatient.

Then out of nowhere, state Sen. Stephen Brewer stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun announcing that he would help Templeton get land at the Templeton Developmental Center site. A few years later, it turned out that the homerun was a foul ball.

That site is currently not a viable option due to millions in unforeseen expenses.

BEST OPTION

Although there are five possible options on the table most of which have already been thoroughly reviewed and tossed out the only one that seems plausible is the property at 411 Baldwinville Road, the former MBW Salvage site.

It’s 23 acres of land at a price tag of around $750,000.

“It’s the best deal the town is ever going to see,” said Mr. Columbus.

Appraisal for 411 Baldwinville Rd

 

The Templeton Elementary School Building Committee agreed, and designated it as its preferred site.

Although there appears to be some wetlands, there will still be ample space to construct a school on with space for athletic fields, parking and expansion. There is also an unused 12,000-square-foot building on the site. (Maybe a new police station?)

Residents will need to buy the land separately from the school project, which means the state won’t chip in its 60 percent reimbursement rate already promised to Templeton for the project.

Let’s also hope the results of the 21E environmental test come back clean.

FUTURE

If all goes as planned, which is rare for this decade-old project, residents will head to the ballot box sometime next year to vote on purchasing the 23-acre property for hopefully around $725,000.

If residents reject the proposal, I believe the project will be canceled.

“We were number four on the (MSBA) list 10 years ago,” said Mr. Columbus. “Templeton sticks out like a sour thumb.”

MSBA has held on to Templeton for years and years with no results which again, isn’t anyone’s fault. There’s just not much suitable land in town.

So with the state not chipping in for the majority of the project, the town simply can’t afford the entire $20 million bill right now. If voters reject borrowing money for the land, they will go to the back of the MSBA funding line and Templeton will likely not see a new school for possibly decades.

Although, if the site looks suitable for a new school and residents really make an effort to support the project, there still is a chance of having an elementary school groundbreaking ceremony sometime in 2017.

“Right now academically, our middle and high schools are Level 1 schools,” said Mr. Columbus. “If we could get a new elementary school, we would like to bring it to that same level.”

Looks like it will be in the voters’ hands.