SALISBURY –The Wicomico County Council approved the Captial Improvement Plan for the next five years that includes the potential renovation or replacement of West Salisbury School, but removed the potential to reserve a portion of Bennett Middle School that is scheduled to be demolished after the school year.
On Tuesday morning, Wicomico County Executive Bob Culver presented the Capital Improvement Program of Wicomico County for Fiscal Year 2016 to 2020 for approval by the County Council.
“We do know the two issues of concern above everything else is the notation in the narrative that the Bennett Middle School tear down will be delayed, and the second part is how the county will address the West Salisbury School issue, more specifically whether we want to allow the $2 million out of reserves to put West Salisbury into a holding pattern, so we do not take it completely off of the CIP,” Council President John Cannon said.
The CIP before the council under the Board of Education stated, “The County Executive recommends reconsideration of the plan to demolish the existing Bennett Middle School and wishes to explore repurposing the structure to house, among other things, the BOE Administrative Complex.”
The CIP furthered, “No new borrowing is required in fiscal year 2016 or beyond to complete the combined JBM/BMS projects. However, from a compliance and budget perspective, there remains a requirement for the executive to introduce and council to approve a resolution and/or legislation authorizing the use of $1,417,032 of bonds initially sold for the purpose of constructing JMB for the completion of BMS.”
“What I am asking the council to do is give me 60 days to investigate if we can repurpose the building. Any parts of it, all of it, none of it, I do not know,” Culver said. “I am asking for a couple months to take a look and see if the building can be used for anything, for example the BOE office facilities, which we know they are currently looking for other locations now…even saving of the gym would be good for the future, because that would be able to give the ability to give them a field house, locker rooms, or it could be used as community facility. It has so many uses for that one building. If in fact the building is beyond repair, I will be the first one to send the wrecking ball in.”
Culver acknowledged BMS is in its final phase of what has been a 10-year rebuilding process.
“A lot has changed in 10 years. Wicomico County does not have as much money as we use to. Something has changed and that is our economy. I can’t afford to build the BOE a new office facility, so let’s try to make do with what we have,” Culver said.
Councilman Ernie Davis asserted bringing the BMS project to a stop would send a bad message.
“You have a project that has been in the works for 10 years that is now 90 percent complete, and now you want to halt the project. The money is already appropriated to tear down the building. Even if you save the building you will have to come up with money to remodel the building,” Davis said.
Councilman Joe Holloway disagreed, arguing the concept has merit.
“I know there are buildings in better shape than others,” he said. “I am in favor of giving Mr. Culver the time to study this issue. I think it deserves studying. It seems to be the mind set to just tear everything down. A lot of other jurisdictions don’t do that. They remodel what they have.”
Councilman Marc Kilmer stated the CIP has become a time sensitive issue.
“The CIP was given to us a month and half past charter deadline. It has already been delayed. I applaud the approach with West Salisbury. You got us together to discuss that, we looked at it and you worked with the community but this BMS you brought to us without any backing or any plan, and now you want another 60 days to delay the CIP. We don’t have any analysis of the legal situation we are putting ourselves in if we delay this. You’re asking us to go on faith here,” Kilmer said.
Councilman John Hall agreed with concerns on going back on the commitment already made to the community.
“One of the issues that I see here is continuity. We have four-year terms and we have 10-year projects. It will be very tough to get anything done if we are going to stop every four years to revisit school projects when we already have such a long process to get schools done,” Councilman Matt Holloway added.
Cannon summarized the council is in concern of moving into unknown territory if they approve to allow Culver investigate the idea of repurposing the old BMS.
“We do not know whether or not the state will pull back the $2 million from the original bonding if we were to choose to change midstream. We don’t know what it is going to cost to renovate BMS. We don’t know what it is going to cost to partially tear down BMS. We don’t know what it is going to cost to prepare that building for the BOE administrative offices,” Cannon said.
He added there hasn’t even been any plans brought forward of what will come of the current BOE offices once they become vacated, and what it will cost if those have to be demolished.
“It’s your vote. You do what you want to but I am trying to save money. You can live with your vote, and I will live with the fact that I was trying to save the county some money,” Culver said.
Kilmer made a motion to remove the two aforementioned paragraphs of the CIP regarding the potential to repurpose BMS. The council voted 6-1 to amend the CIP with Joe Holloway opposed.
Next the council discussed the concept of rebuilding West Salisbury School versus remodeling it.
According to Director of Administration Wayne Strausburg, the state is in the position that the school, which was built in 1964 and has never received any updates, cannot be renovated.
Cannon explained the CIP establishes $2.2 million to come out of reserve to put the West Salisbury project in line.
“This is not a decision of whether a replacement or renovation will be made at this time. It simply allows the executive and the county and other parties involved to make that decision. There will be time in the future for the discussion to be held as to what will be the best purpose for that building and for that land,” he said.
According to Strausburg, if the school is replaced there are two proposals; replace the school for the existing population or double the capacity. A replacement for the existing population will cost a total of $26.4 million, and a replacement school doubling the capacity will cost a total of $41 million.
“If we are going to cue the money that I have been told the county would have to appropriate in order to build a replacement school of the same size for the same population we are going to have to then determine what projects we will eliminate from the CIP because it is on the order of $18 million that we will have to fund,” Strausburg said.
In the end the council voted unanimously to approve the CIP FY16-20.