Updated: 9:25 p.m., April 24:
The Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation has approved an additional appropriation, ensuring the Music Instruction Space and Auditorium (MISA) Project at Greenwich High School remains alive.
The vote followed party lines with the six Democrats voting approval and the six Republicans voting against. BET GOP Chair Michael Mason cast the tie-breaking vote, allowing the project to now go before the Representative Town Meeting. The BET also voted to increase the contingency fund so that the estimate project cost will be $43,681,000.
Greenwich Patch will have full coverage of the meeting on Thursday.
Original story:
After a two-plus hour contentious meeting, the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation remains in a recess for party caucuses, as Republicans try to iron out differences between themselves on whether to approve an additional $8 million for the music instructional and auditorium (MISA) project at Greenwich High School.
What was supposed to be a five-minute party caucus break for each of the six Democrats and six Republicans at 7:45 p.m., continues nearly 50 minutes later as the Republicans continue their confab in First Selectman Peter Tesei's office.
The BET vote on the request for additional money is the result of bids for MISA came in several million dollars more than the originally budgeted $34 million. As the BET began the budget process, the Board of Ed planned to seek allocation of $3 million for the next phase of construction but after receiving construction bids, the board asked for another $5 million for a total of $8 million for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
The six Democrats all spoke in favor of the $8 million appropriation while five of the six Republicans spoke against it. Republican Greg Bedrosian did not speak on the proposal. Tesei tried to strike a conciliatory chord by suggesting the Board of Ed and the BET work to plan out future capital improvement projects before a vote is taken.
The bids received by the school district, the entire project is now expected to cost $42,420,000 or about $14 million more than the originally projected cost of $28 million. (That price does not include the cleanup of contaminated soil found the high school campus during the preliminary construction that began in 2011.)
The Board of Ed and the MISA building committee decided to keep the original design for the additional classroom space and a 1,325-seat auditorium with an orchestra pit and balcony, rather than scale it down to reduce costs.
Greenwich Patch wil have updates as they become available.
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