Aldermen approve additional $12 million for Lincoln Park school
By George P. Hassett

     The Board of Aldermen this week unanimously approved adding $12.3 million to the $23.4 million bond already planned to rebuild the Lincoln Park Community Park school.

     The state first approved the plan in August of 2003, agreeing to pay for 90% of its approved cost. But Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said the cost of the project has increased to $35.7 million.
    Curtatone said the increase is due to construction inflation and the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the price of steel.
    Gerald Boyle, the project manager, said the state has agreed to fund only $20.4 million of the project, leaving the city responsible for the rest.
    ‚ÄúThis is political backtracking by the treasurer‚Äôs office,‚Äù said Curtatone at a March 27 Finance committee meeting.
    ‚ÄúThe people we are talking about are the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,‚Äù said Alderman-at-Large Bruce Desmond at the meeting. ‚ÄúThese are the same people who do not clean the parks they own in the city and continually allow Dilboy Field and Foss Park to fall into disrepair. The commonwealth is once again dropping their problems back into our laps because they did not account for their own costs.‚Äù
     Katherine P. Craven, the executive director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, said the size of the new Lincoln Park Community School should be reduced.
    ‚ÄúState dollars would go further if the school was a more appropriate size. We‚Äôre not sure why this building is bigger than average,‚Äù she said. ‚ÄúThere is absolutely nothing political about this. These are facts, the Lincoln Park school is bigger than the schools other communities are building. Every state taxpayer should not be held accountable for the extras that some local taxpayers want.‚Äù
    Curtatone said cutting back the size of the school would mean eliminating gymnasium and cafeteria space.
    ‚ÄúI am not going to deliver a project to the teachers and students of Somerville that does not meet their needs and their demands. I will not approve cuts that don‚Äôt make sense,‚Äù he said.
    ‚ÄúOur job is not to build this school on the cheap. What are we going to do? Not include air conditioning?‚Äù said Ward 1 Alderman William Roche.
    At the March 21 committee meeting, neighborhood parents and elected officials packed the aldermanic chambers at City Hall to encourage aldermen to appropriate additional money for the school, despite the additional burden to the city‚Äôs taxpayers.