Honoring the Legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Vol. 31, No.2 -FREEwww.advocatenews.net Free Every Friday 781-286-8500 Friday, January 14, 2022 City Council weighs options for new high school site By Adam Swift W ith the possible selection of a new Revere High School site just weeks away, the City Council got a look at the options that are still on the table at Monday night’s meeting. As they did at a School Committee meeting late in December 2021, representatives from the owner’s project manager, LeftField, and project architect, Perkins Eastman, ran down the history of the project and provided more details about the options still being considered by the Revere High School Building Committee. Those remaining options basically boil down to building on Erricola Park fi elds next to the existing high school, and then replicating those fi elds once the current high school is demolished, or building on the Wonderland park site. One variation of the current high school site option includes gutting and renovating the existing fi eld house on the site. “We are at the point of the feasibility study where the project has to pick what is called the preferred option,” said Brian Dakin, the project manager from LeftField. “Basically pick the site, pick the preferred option of the school that will get studied further moving forward.” In the coming weeks, Dakin said, the building committee will make a recommendation for a site and option which will then be brought forward for approval by the School Committee and the City Council. Regardless of the option, Dakin said, students should be in a new high school building in the summer of 2026. Preliminary fi gures show a cost of between $375 million to $395 million for each option, according to Dakin. While the city is eligible for a reimbursement rate from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) of up to 79 percent, there are caps in place and items not eligible for reimbursement – that means the total project cost picked up by the state will likely be closer to 40 percent, said Dakin. The price tag to the city for The architect's drawing of Option 2A.B - the new high school plans at the Wonderland Track site. (Photo from RevereTV/YouTube) building on the existing site would be about $231 million, with the cost lowered to $223 million if the fi eld house is renovated. However, Dakin said, renovating the fi eld house could effectively knock any indoor athletic space for the high school out of commission for up to two years. The Wonderland option has a lower overall price tag, but the city would have to pay approximately $247 million because the MSBA does not reimburse for land acquisition costs. Dakim said the initial estimates put the cost of taking about 24 acres of the Wonderland property at about $23 million. The owners would then be able to develop the remaining Wonderland parcel of under 10 acres. Dakim also laid out what the The new construction schedule at the proposed Wonderland Track site showing a completion date of 2028. project team feels are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each option. “We feel that some of the advantages [of all new construction at the current site] is that there is no new land acquisition that is required; the existing traffi c routes, for better or worse, are maintained,” said Dakim. “It is, comparatively, the most pedestrian- and bicyclefriendly location; it is located in the heart of the community. Even though we would lose access to those fi elds during construction … they would be redeveloped at the end of the project.” The disadvantages for the allnew construction on the existing site include the relocation process through the state for the park, the existing building would be demolished and not retained for a future middle school, and it would disrupt on-campus activities for four to fi ve years, as well as abutters. Building primarily new but keeping the field house is the most cost-eff ective option, Dakim said. “You get rewarded a litBUILDING | SEE Page 13 Mask mandate motion put into committee By Adam Swift A citywide mask mandate isn’t immediately in the works, but the City Council will consider the motion made by Councillorat-Large Steven Morabito to implement one. Morabito’s motion asked that Mayor Brian Arrigo request the Board of Health to look into implementing a temporary citywide indoor mask mandate to help slow the surge in COVID-19 cases. “As most people know, the primary purpose of wearing a mask is protecting people around you, and it’s also about protecting yourself,” said Morabito. “A mask is 20 to 30 percent more eff ective, but more importantly, it is about the people around you and making the whole community safe. As a city, we have almost 60,000 residents, and we are a transit-oriented city with six diff erent bus routes transporting people to and from our city each day. “We have a ridership on the Blue Line of 8,300 daily … and we have three subways in Revere. I feel strongly that until our city is confi dent about the state of the pandemic, we need to see a dramatic decrease in COVID cases.” Morabito said the city has to act as other surrounding communities have done to implement a mask mandate to help protect against the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19. Councillor-at-Large George Rotondo said he wants to see the request go to committee. “I will agree with you: Omicron is a variant that we have to be very concerned with as it is highly transmissible,” said Rotondo. “I will tell you that, thankfully, the city of Revere is 80 percent vaccinated and that’s a very good thing, and I hope we can get to 100 percent.” Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro said he supports the request. “I run Revere Karate Academy, and right now, half of my enrollment is out because either the students themselves or a family member has COVID,” he said. “We’ve been wearing masks now for the last week, and I fully support this motion.” Morabito said he believes the matter is one of urgency and asked for a roll call vote as City Council President Gerry Visconti moved to put the motion into committee for further discussion. “Councillor Morabito, while I appreciate your motion, and I understand it, we do have a Board of Health here that has done a tremendous job bringing us up to about 82 percent vaccinated,” said Visconti. “I believe that if they felt the need to enforce a mask mandate for the city of Revere, that they would have already done so. That being said, I’m happy to put it in committee so we can have some discussions with the Board of Health and [Health Director] Lauren Buck before making this decision for the rest of the city of Revere.”
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