BCS Capital Plan Passes By Wide Margin

by David Flint
Berlin School District voters have approved a plan to renovate the school buildings at Berlin and Cherry Plain at an estimated cost of $6.8 million. The count in Tuesday’s referendum was 373 Yes versus 173 No. The vote authorizes spending $1.8 million from an existing capital reserve fund and borrowing up to $5 million, with the latter amount expected to be reimbursed from State aid.
Renovations to Berlin Elementary School, estimated at $3.95 million, will include replacing windows and doors, masonry restoration, reconstructing the front portico, partial roofing repair and replacement, installation of an elevator and handicapped accessible toilets, lead and asbestos abatement, ventilation improvements, electrical upgrades and replacing a boiler. At the Middle School/High School, for an estimated cost of $2.9 million, the 1989 roof and a boiler will be replaced and improvements made to ventilation and outside drainage systems.
The architects should have plans and documents ready to submit to the State Education Department by the fall of 2012. Assuming it is approved, the project would then be bid and awarded in the following spring and construction would take place in the summers of 2013 and 2014.
This vote is a definite turnaround from the one held two years ago on a $19.7 million capital project that would have included, among other things, six new classrooms at Berlin Elementary School. Voters rejected that project by an 80% margin, 820 to 204.