Millis New Elementary School Up for Re-Vote

It’s time for another vote, say the Millis Board of Selectmen with their decision to place the question of a $51.765,857 override for the construction of a new replacement facility for the existing Clyde Brown Elementary School again on the ballot for the Fall 2017 meeting, to take place November 6, 2017, at 7:30 p.m., at Millis Middle School/High School auditorium. Article 30 on the upcoming Town Meeting warrant contains the same wording as Article 13 on the spring warrant, which passed 460 to 72.
If the vote passes, the Massachusetts School Board Association will reimburse the town for approximately 57% of eligible costs, which translates to about 41% of total project costs. That amounts to a cost for the Town for $30.3 - $31 million for the new school. The Millis Elementary School Board Committee had estimated that the cost of “doing nothing,” or not approving funding for the new school would be a comparable $34.6 million in work needed to renovate the existing school and bring it up to code.
The Town of Millis was challenged by citizen John Fitzgerald following the vote on Article 13, as he filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the town on June 19th. Fitzgerald, who had motioned at Spring Town Meeting to table Article 13 in order to have the town consider other locations for the school and not cut down trees, a motion that did not pass and ended with the vote proceeding, argued that the Town Moderator had misled voters by leading them to believe that tabling the school vote would jeopardize funding from the Massachusetts School Board Association.
Fitzgerald also complained to the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA), which placed the project on hold pending a public commentary period and review. On September 22nd (EEA#15749), the Mass. Executive Office of Environmental and Energy Affairs (EEA), in a letter signed by Matthew Beaton after receiving over 450 comments both for and against the project by Millis residents, decided that the Clyde Brown School Elementary Project would not require any further MEPA review. It concluded:
“The ENF has sufficiently defined the nature and general elements of the project for the purposes of MEPA review and demonstrated that the project’s environmental impacts will be avoided, minimized and/or mitigated to the extent practicable. Based on the information in the ENF and after consultation with State Agencies, I find that no further MEPA review is required at this time.”
In a letter to Millis’ town attorney on October 5th, Fitzgerald threatened to take the matter to federal court to defend his constitutional right to sue.
“I had hoped to avoid the necessity to reach constitutional issues in federal court, but with the MEPA process complete, the builder having threatened at the last Planning Board meeting to begin construction as early as November, the Town having challenged the jurisdiction of the Superior Court, and the Town having opted not to place Article 13 before the voters for a clean vote at the upcoming November 2017 Town Meeting, the town left me with no choice but to proceed with the federal suit,” wrote Fitzgerald.
At the upcoming November 6th Millis Town Meeting, Fitzgerald had added by petition, two articles to the town warrant, articles 28 and 29. The first article petitioned asks voters to “cease and desist from demolishing the hill by the bandstand, and from cutting down trees thereupon, and block construction of an elementary school on that site;” the second, article 29, requests that voters re-designate “The Hill” as parkland, transferring that 6.4 acre parcel of land back to parks and recreation.
With Article 30, it seems, Millis voters may once again have the chance to decide on the fate of the new elementary school.