OPINION: View From Long-Time Medfield Resident

Medfield MA

26 October, 2021

5:28 PM

Description

OPINION: View from Medfield Resident As a 21-year tax paying resident of Medfield I am voting NO at the Special Town Meeting on November 7th and here are my reasons why. 1. I support a new school, but I don't support the new location. As a tax paying Medfield resident, I have the right to ask questions and have the right to be heard on town projects funded by my tax-payer dollars. Covid has impacted the process and as such I strongly believe "the voices" of the town were not heard or even worse ignored. Zoom chat boxes do not enable back and forth discussion or allow for follow up questions. In fact, your question might never even get addressed in a zoom meeting. Yet we have been repeatedly told that Medfield residents have been given ample opportunity to discuss this topic, I disagree. 2. Risk is a reality. I lean toward limiting risk as I know eliminating it in this type of project is not realistic. There is a global supply shortage on some if not all building supplies and this shortage is not going away anytime soon. In a world of supply vs demand we all know you pay a premium when there is a lack of inventory. If the MSBA delays their vote at the end of October this would be a great benefit giving Medfield additional time to address the new options that many citizens, 229 to be exact, at the May Town Meeting asked to be evaluated. During this time let the supply chain attempt to catch up with demand. The proposed 4th& 5th grade school to be built on the Wheelock site is one of the most expensive schools to ever be built in the Commonwealth. $82 million, rough estimate total 400 students ($41M per grade), and this is not taking into consideration the full financial impact of the global supply shortage. 3. Dale Street building options. The old saying "If you design it to fail, it will fail". That is what I believe took place with the building options presented for a new school at Dale Street. Please use this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqer7o5dStw and go approximately 7:16 minutes in to where Jerry Potts does a very nice job reviewing building the new proposed school on the current Dale Street location. He shares some options for what swing space is available and how by using this swing space the town potentially shaves some time and money out of the cost of the project. Popular question around town, why was a true apple to apple comparison ever done? Same architectural plans placed on the current location of Dale Street vs the proposed site at Wheelock? Valid question. 4. Most citizens and all teachers want a new school. We know the current Dale Street location works really well, and by building at Dale we eliminate much of the costly infrastructure work that the new site incures. Infrastructure costs not built into the project are a very high risk that we as taxpayers face if a new school is built at Wheelock. New sidewalks on Philip, Cross and on Elm going toward Philip St will cost double digit millions. Repairing/replacing the very narrow bridge on Elm St just past the very sharp curve on Elm crossing Mine Brook, again double-digit millions. On top of other costs that the SBC may be asking the town's highway department to address as the project moves forward. These are costs of 10's of millions of dollars we do NOT have to pay if we build a new school at Dale Street. 5. Our town water supply is at risk! Water, clean drinking water is not something we can or should ever take for granted! We build at Wheelock we risk negatively impacting our precious and priceless water. Building at Dale Street does NOT impact our water supply now or in the future. This is a 70-year project. Do you want to risk the cleanliness of Medfield's water in 2075 for something we choose to do in 2021? NO, Oh NO. 6. Two additional stops signs on South Street near the railroad tracks is in my opinion reckless. South Street is a major access road to Route 109. It backs up today, I can't even begin to think about the impact of adding 2 stops signs to this heavily traveled access road. Limiting access to Knollwood, Steven Ln. and Cross St. during peak commuting times is not a realistic solution. Personally, I think it's a huge safety risk. Narrow winding roads like Philip St. and Cross St. with no sidewalks with small children on bicycles is a dangerous if not deadly scenario. Some say, well we will put in sidewalks, a cost that is not build into the $82 million for the school but a cost that taxpayers will bear. Net result an increase to your ever-growing Medfield tax bill! Oh, and not to mention the traffic study for this project was done in September 2020 when just about everyone was working from home and Medfield schools were 100% remote. Think about that! 7. The looming impact on our tax bill for the development of the State Hospital land. We don't know how much developing this land is going to cost but I am quite certain we will see the costs as another increase to our tax bill. PLEASE ATTEND the Special Town Meeting on Nov 7th and vote! I am voting No, and I just shared why. Please participate in the process and vote! Eileen Murphy, Metacomet St.