As we said in previous blog posts, one of our biggest concerns is that the school board was approving something and they don’t know what it will cost. At the January 4, 2024 school board meeting we now learned that instead of $3.455 million, the actual cost is $4.417 million – 28% higher than they thought. The school board also voted to finance this over 20-years so the annual lease payment will be $306,030.
This expense alone will cause an increase of $0.652 in our tax rate, or 3.139%
The reason given at the meeting was that Siemens had underestimated the cost of the sub-contractors. TTG has requested a formal explanation from the business manager at the SAU, Dan Rossner. We will post his explanation if and when he sends it.
Note that this expense will continue for 20-yrs but is subject to not being approved every year. There is a question as to how this will actually occur, Mr. Rossner, contends that there will be a line item in the annual budget for this expense and that this line item could be challenges and not approved at any annual meeting. TTG contends that this expense must be presented as a warrant article each year so the people can vote on it. This is a legal issue that will be resolved soon.
Here are the final contracts and an explanation of how the financing and contracts work.
There are actually two documents:
- The first is the contract with Siemens to do the work. Note this is long but includes a detailed scope of work That document is HERE
- The second document is for the financing with the leasing company. Thornton MLC Leasing Signed proposal
How this is structured is complicated but think of it as if you were leasing a car. You decide to lease a car from, say Ford. You go to the dealer and decide on the car you want but you actually sign a contract with Ford Leasing, Inc who actually pays Ford Motor Company for the car and you pay Ford Leasing each year and at the end of the contract you pay an amount and then own the car.
That’s what the school board did. They contracted with Siemens to do the work on the school. But rather than financing it with a loan they financed it with a lease. For all practical purposes the loan and the lease are identical. Both include annual payments and in both cases we own the work as soon as it’s done for a final payment of $1.00. But structuring it as a lease allows them to enter the contract without going to a warrant article and vote of the townspeople.
The lease is subject to the town approving the lease payment each year. “The lease payments shall be subject to annual appropriation for each fiscal year,”
What we don’t know, and is not included in the lease documents, is what is the recourse if the town doesn’t make the lease payment?
Boiler Room Specs including second floor
In response to Terry Penny’s comment below. She is correct in that there will be a 983 sq ft room with a sink above the new boiler room addition. Here is the scope of work for that:
See previous blogs on this topic.
WRITE-IN Candidate profile – Bob Hatcher, Town Moderator and Planning Board
Many of you know me as I've been around town politics and activities for several years. A Thornton resident and taxpayer since 2000, I've seen the town both thrive and struggle. My goal in running is to make our town run smoother, to keep the small-town flavor, to...
STOP,STOP,STOP!!!! Careless with other peoples hard earned money. Irresponsible people who have no concept of what their position is as elected members of Thornton school board. These people can not be trusted to do the peoples will. As for the unelected union officials pushing to pass this in an expedited manor, Shame on you. It is repulsive and corrupt and not worthy of anyone associated with teaching of our children.
Along with the new Boiler, the School will get a two story addition, the upstairs being an additional room; and then they will also get the old boiler room for an additional room. So, this is not just the boiler, it is also two additional classrooms. The new budget will be over $6million dollars for just the Thornton Central School which is estimated to house 189 students. In addition to the Central School, there are approximately 100 High School Students estimated to attend Plymouth Regional High School at an additional cost of nearly $2.5 million. Therefore, the entire amount for 289 students will be approx. $8.5 million. Wow, wow, wow. It seems we could tuition the students at a private school for less per student costs.