Meeting in a special session, Westport’s Board of Finance tonight approved almost $3.8 million to address indoor air quality issues at various schools.
The unanimous vote included almost $2.9 million for King’s Highway Elementary School which will be used to upgrade the building’s ventilation system as well as to repoint exterior masonry walls to eliminate water incursion through the walls.
Two years ago, responding to parent complaints, Westport First Selectman Gordon F. Joseloff appointed a special committee to investigate air quality issues at King’s Highway. (See WestportNow Aug. 2, 2007)
“I take some pride in the fact that it was my responsiveness to parents who first raised air quality issues at King’s Highway with me in the summer of 2007 that got us to where we are today,” he said in endorsing the appropriation request.
He said it was necessary to do all the proposed work in order to maintain parity in addressing air quality issues at all schools.
“There is nothing more important than providing a safe, healthy environment for our teachers to teach and our students to learn,” Joseloff said.
Joseloff in 2007 named Gavin Anderson, head of the First Selectman’s Maintenance Committee, as head of the special committee looking into the King’s Highway complaints. The committee, which met for eight months, recommended immediate and longer term cleanup efforts.
Anderson, now the Republican candidate running against Democrat Joseloff in November’s election, told the Board of Finance he and his Maintenance Committee recommended the work at King’s Highway and other schools as proposed.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said, explaining that his committee had thoroughly investigated the solutions proposed by the Board of Education’s engineering consulting firm.
In addition to the King’s Highway appropriation, the Board of Finance approved $242,874 for windows and doors at Coleytown Elementary School; $162,272 for repointing the exterior of Saugatuck Elementary, and $100,00 each for gym ventilation improvements at Long Lots Elementary and Coleytown Middle Schools.
The appropriation request will go to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) next month with work set to begin in the summer of 2010.
