Tuesday, January 7, 2020

How are we funding this proposed Foley rehab?

I just want to quickly flag this item coming in tonight from Councilor Wally (keying off the commitment made by Mayor Petty at the Doherty High building committee vote):
District 5 Councilor Matthew E. Wally is calling on the city administration to develop plans for making improvements to Duffy Field, located off Newton Square, and Foley Stadium in an effort to increase the availability of athletic fields.
At that meeting, the City Manager estimated that the two together would be $14 to $15M "that we weren't planning on" in the budget.
The funding on Foley would be spent on the Worcester Public Schools as capital spending, a line which in total last year was $4.1M ($3.6M for building rehab and $500K for capital equipment) for a district with fifty buildings, of which the oldest dates back before the Civil War.
That hasn't been nearly sufficient to meet the needs of the district.
If the city intends to do Foley in addition to other capital spending on schools, well, that's a discussion to open with the School Committee.
But watch to be sure this doesn't become this year's entire capital spending. 

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