Westfield's cost for the school will only be $13 million, but the state’s School Building Authority required the city to secure funding for the total cost. The authority will reimburse Westfield 62.7 percent or about $23 million for the project.
Westfield City Hall.WESTFIELD – Construction of a $36 million elementary school is scheduled to begin in the spring and $3.4 million in repairs to City Hall are expected to begin immediately.
Both projects received final approval for funding, through bonding, Thursday by the City Council.
The School Department is scheduled to move from the former Ashley Street School to Hampton Ponds Plaza later this month, clearing the way for demolition of that building, the site of the new 660-pupil elementary school.
At City Hall immediate work will involve replacement of at least two sections of slate roof, deemed critical by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and Purchaser Tammy B. Tefft before winter weather arrives.
Failure to secure the roof could force the closing of two areas of City Hall during the winter, Knapik and Tefft told councilors last month.
Those areas are a rear entrance to City Hall, one that leads to the Retirement Board and the other is an area that currently allows rain to seep into a records storage area.
Several city officials have said significant repairs and maintenance to the building has been lacking for at least the past 30 years.
The overall bond will allow the replacement of the entire slate roof which is beyond repair, Tefft has said. It will also allow repair or replacement of windows in the building, re-pointing of the brick facade and new gutters around the building.
Opening of the new elementary school will lead to the closing of Abner Gibbs and Franklin Avenue schools.
The new school may also house students from Juniper Park School, leased by the School Department from Westfield State University. The lease with WSU expires next year.
The new school is expected to be ready for use in September 2013.