Officials in Belchertown, Mass., took a major step in early October to replace its aging Jabish Brook Middle School with a new building that is estimated to cost between $117 million and $121 million if residents approve the project at a town meeting next June.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton reported Oct. 15 that after examining three design options — two that called for a new building and one that would renovate and expand the current school — the Jabish Brook Middle School Building Committee chose the option that its members felt would best meet education program goals and communal space needs, while also limiting the amount of disruption to students during construction.
If the project comes to fruition, it should be completed by 2027, after which the Belchertown school district would close Cold Spring School and redistribute students in the K-8 schools.
"There's so much to get done but I feel like we have really great people on this program and I'm excited to share it with the town," noted School Committee Chair Heidi Gutekenst.
The project now advances to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which in 2020 accepted Belchertown into its Core Facilities Program and made it eligible to receive state funding for a new school building. The town expects to receive about a 30 percent reimbursement from the state for the construction effort, which, if approved, would bring the town's cost for the new facility to between $86 million and $90 million.
The building committee said in a public presentation Oct. 7 that the exact cost of the new school and the impact on taxpayers will be determined when more details are finalized. Once that happens, the project would advance to next summer's annual town meeting, where voters will decide whether they want to increase their property taxes to pay for the project.
Jabish Brook in Desperate Need of Replacement
The proposed three-story Jabish Brook Middle School would accommodate 475 students and be built on the site of the current facility between North Washington Street and Springfield Road. The floor design parallels the grade readjustments, with sixth grade students on the first floor, seventh graders on the second floor and eighth graders on the top floor.
The project also calls for a new overlapping baseball and soccer field for town recreation.
Christopher Lee, a project manager OF Lamoureux Pagano Associates, a Worchester architecture firm, noted the biggest unknown financial factor is the soil on the field, which he said is "great for fill, but not so great for building on."
He added that depending on the severity of the soil, the building's costs could rise.
Skanska, the project's contractor, hired Lamoureux to conduct a feasibility study and to design several options, including base renovations to the existing school and what a new building would look like. The feasibility study revealed that the school's roof, heating systems, and materials are not up to code and need complete replacement.
"The building is 50 to 60 years old, so it's typical that a building this age [would have] a lot of systems and materials nearing [the end of their lives]," Lee said.
As a result, the building is extremely energy inefficient, allowing heat to easily escape, and it has no fire suppression system. Gutekenst also told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that the structure has reached absolute capacity for electrical usage. As an example, she explained, without enough power, school staff struggled to get students proper technology during the transition to in-person classes after the pandemic.
"To access any of the [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning] systems, you have to pull up the floorboards and crawl into these tiny spaces," Gutekenst said.
The approved design option for the new middle school is partly based on the number and size of rooms MSBA believes are appropriate for middle school learning. However, Gutekenst noted the communal spaces, such as the gymnasium and sports fields, are larger than MSBA suggestions because of the town's needs. These areas will receive less state reimbursement.
Other factors considered during design will be the needs of teachers, students and community members. Parents attending the most recent town meeting voiced their concerns about the lack of music and choir space in the new designs, which opted for a cafeteria auditorium for music classes rather than a dedicated classroom.
The committee later added a classroom for music in the approved design.
If the project does not pass during next year's Town Meeting, Jabish Brook Middle will undergo base renovations to bring the building up to code. A new roof and building envelope, as well as an additional fire suppression system and other upgrades, will cost the town an estimated $87 million to $89 million.
The base renovations are not eligible for the MSBA grant, according to the Hampshire Daily Gazette.
MassDOT to Replace Aging Bridge in Northampton
Citing safety concerns, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) officials are advancing plans to replace an aging 84-year-old bridge on Old Springfield Road in Northampton, the Hampshire Daily Gazette reported Oct. 25.
Located near the town's border with Easthampton where Hulberts Pond meets the Oxbow of the Connecticut River, the bridge was initially constructed in 1939 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
By 1991, temporary steel needed to be placed over the existing bridge due to its poor condition. Seventeen years later, MassDOT's initial plans for a replacement structure ultimately fell through due to permitting issues, with the current project plan initiated in 2018.
At a recent public hearing, transportation agency officials said the $4.6 million project is now expected to begin in 2025. Once construction starts, the bridge will be closed to vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
Shuttering the bridge makes sense in that it normally sees very little traffic, said Doug Peterson, vice president of Michael Baker International, the Pittsburgh-based design consulting firm for the project.
"The second reason is this area floods a lot so it's frequently closed, and the logistics of putting a temporary pedestrian/bike lane [in an area] with flooding concerns would be very challenging," he explained.
Peterson also acknowledged that the nearby area is used for recreational purposes, such as fishing, and the project may disrupt some of that outdoor activity.
"It won't necessarily be the same as it was before," he told the Northampton newspaper. "On one side of the bridge, that area has been kind of destroyed almost by some of the cars parking there, and that wasn't the original intent."
According to MassDOT, the finished bridge will consist of one 12-ft. travel lane with 2-ft. shoulders for a total roadway width of 16 ft. There will be no sidewalks on the bridge or approaches, in keeping with the rest of the road.
During the bridge's construction, a detour will be set up along Clapp Street and Easthampton Road.
In 2022, the bridge replacement project received $3.13 million in funding from the administration of former Gov. Charlie Baker, part of a $1.74 billion investment of federal funds in 146 projects across the commonwealth.
MassDOT is expected to submit the structure's final design by January 2025, with bids being advertised the following month. Property owners who may be affected by the construction will be contacted by city officials regarding further project details, according to the state agency.
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