School repairs: NK council acts wisely
By: STAFF 10/30/2003
We don't blame the North Kingstown Town Council for being hesitant to act on the school committee's request to put forward a $45 million plan to repair and modernize several of the town's schools.
This request, made last week, gave the town council only a few days for consideration because there is a Nov. 1 deadline for submitting such spending proposals to the state Board of Regents. We submit that asking the council to swallow such a huge pill with only a few days notice is unfair.
What is also unfair is asking the taxpayers to dig deep into their pockets just a couple of years after they were asked to foot the huge bill for the new high school.
Monday night, the town council took a responsible route. It did not endorse any dollar amount but did give the school committee the authority to go ahead and make a proposal to the Board of Regents. In particular, the council is interested in addressing the Davisville Elementary School and the Wickford Middle School both of which have many deficiencies. Another fix-up headache on the horizon is the venerable Wickford Elementary School.
The Board of Regents, of course, won't necessarily approve the whole spending plan. And whatever plan emerges will have to go to the voters in a referendum for approval probably next November. Between now and then the town council will be able to weigh whatever spending authority emerges from the Regents and then decide how big a plan they wish to put before the voters.
That's the game plan right now but no matter what, it is bound to be a bitter pill for taxpayers. Once again North Kingstown is in a position to continue the sorry financial tradition of putting off school building repairs and upgrades until it becomes critical.
Time and again, this town has gone the bond referendum route to accomplish repairs and upgrades that should have been taken care of in logical progression in annual operating budgets.
Common sense dictates that a priority list of improvements should be established and then followed annually. But once again repairs have been delayed year after year and now the town is presented with a huge laundry list of things that should be done to the various schools. And to make matters worse the proposal is for the taxpayers to foot the bill the expensive way-by borrowing.
No one is arguing that the repairs and upgrades are unnecessary. The Wickford Middle and Davisville Elementary schools, two of the oldest schools, are in dire need of upgrades.
But it seems to us that there should be better planning in the whole process than dumping a $45 million bomb on the council's table 10 days before the state deadline.
Fortunately, the council didn't buy into the whole thing and decided to take it one step at a time.


©The Standard Times 2003