so they want $950,000.00 - $825,000.00 to buy land on Otter River Rd for the new elementary school, combined 4 parcels two owners,. Not in your live time worth $825,000.00. Then they want $125,000.00 to having an engineer check it out. Now they say they can't use the land John and Doris Brooks had agreed to so generously to donate because they claim it is wetlands. Well I went on the DEP website and looked at the GIS maps http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/WETLANDS12K/viewer.htm for anyone who doesn't know what parcels it is the Chaves house (formally Tolman's) and the woodlot next to it owned by the Inmans for the real old timers like myself it use to be Kalel's junkyard and turkey farm. Well the MassGIS shows "wooded swamp mixed trees and wooded swamp deciduous " it also show streams going through the property. now if you move the map to the Brooks' property it doesn't seem to show any of this, mmmm ???
Is the Mass/DEP wrong????
Hi Pauly,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you started this blog, although I have to disagree with your assessment of this property for a new school. I've been attending the elementary school building committee meetings regularly. Two RPF's were done for land proposals for the elementary school. Many parcels were considered. The sub-committee for land spent a lot of time trying to locate an appropriate, buildable site for the new school.
It is estimated that it would cost about 1.5 million in site work to make the Brooks property work for an elementary school. The proposed land purchase off of Otter River Road is 4 parcels of land by two owners. This proposed site is too large for our needs as an elementary school. There are wetlands on these parcels. The proposed plan includes all 4 parcels so that the school can be built around the wetlands. It is hoped to carve off some of the land with the home to recoup part of the cost of the purchase price of the land.
Is this the ideal spot for a new elementary school? That is open for debate and will be debated. What is undeniable is that the elementary school building committee needs land upon which to build a school. What is undeniable is that the elementary school building committee is facing time constraints by the MSBA to move the project forward or risk losing all state funding for this project. What is undeniable is that Templeton needs new Elementary school.