A new parking lot at Long Lots Elementary School where parents and school officials have long complained that inadequate parking causes dangerous conditions ֖ is a little closer to reality.
The Representative Town Meeting (RTM) Finance and Education Committees Tuesday night unanimously recommended an appropriation of $2,455,950 for completion of the project.
The full RTM will take up the measure at its June 1 meeting pending Board of Finance action later this week.
Members of the School Building Committee (SBC) told a joint meeting of the committees that the cost might seem especially high because the project actually involves more than parking spaces.
Allen Bomes, a committee member who also serves on the RTM, said land use bodies had required the SBC to incorporate long-needed drainage improvements in the plan something he said added almost $600,000 to the cost.
He also said because of delays by the land use bodies in approving the measure, work can no longer be completed this summer and would have to be done in stages.
Bomes said Russell Blair, Long Lots Subcommittee chair, had estimated there was about a $100,000 price tag to do the work in phases.
But Bomes said there was also some good news ֖ the project cost had been reduced by $26,250 from what had originally been submitted to the Board of Finance and the RTM.
The committees’ recommendation was contingent on approval of the appropriation by the Board of Finance at its meeting Thursday.
