Manchester school officials ask that permit fees for construction projects be waived
Apr. 10—Manchester school officials are asking the city to waive millions in permit fees for construction work associated with the district's $306 million facilities plan.
While fees have been waived for city and state projects in Manchester in the past, a project manager said that when his firm inquired recently about the fees, they reportedly were told the fees would not be waived — resulting in an additional $2.7 million in project costs and $1.9 million in interest.
The estimated $2.7 million in permit fees was not included in the $306 million-plus cost estimate for the project. If the fees aren't waived, "something else would have to be either adjusted, removed or not done," David Saindon, a project executive with facilities plan project management firm LeftField, told members of the Committee on Joint School Buildings this week.
"If the fees are not waived, the budget is still the budget," Saindon said. "We'll live with it. We'll figure it out. But I would just ask if there's some consideration to spend that money in the schools, not in permit fees."
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted in December to approve a $290 million bond to begin construction on facilities next fall. Phase I of the long-term facilities project includes closing Wilson Elementary School; building the new elementary school; transitioning Hillside and McLaughlin middle schools from grades 6-8 to grades 5-8; and renovating Parkside, Southside, McLaughlin and Hillside middle schools to host fifth-grade students.
In January, city aldermen, by an 8-6 vote, approved a motion stating that "it is the position of the members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that the district must place all spending as it pertains to Phase I on hold until the new Board has had the opportunity to receive a full presentation on the project, and that all future decisions must go through the Joint School Buildings Committee as laid out in the Charter and per state statute RSA 199:3."
This week, Saindon told members of the Joint School Buildings Committee that permit fees amount to roughly 1% of the total project cost.
"So it's not a small number," said committee Chairman Jim O'Connell.
Alderman and committee member Chris Morgan asked for a cost breakdown of the $2.7 million in permit fees. Rounding up the figures, Saindon estimated $600,000 for Beech Street School construction, $460,000 for Hillside Middle School, $300,000 for McLaughlin Middle School, $380,000 for Parkside Middle School, $490,000 for Southside Middle School and $186,000 for modular buildings.
Also included in the permitting tab were $5,800 for a plan review fee, $85,000 for a non-residential fire department impact fee, and $190,000 in fees for contractors pulling the permit.
"The biggest driver is the permit fee," Saindon said.
Former mayor and current Ward 9 school board member Bob Baines said, "there's a long history of the city ... waiving those fees."
"Hopefully we get a positive response from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen," Baines said.
O'Connell said the project budget isn't going to increase beyond the approved $306 million.
"The question is, are we going to spend $2.7 million of money that could be used on schools and for schools and for school buildings, for a permitting process, or are we going to waive the fees as we have done for state and other projects?" O'Connell asked. "Why would we not waive the fees on our schools? In a rational world, you would just waive the fees, and it's also true that this is done in most other towns."
The permit fee waiver request is expected to appear on the agenda for Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.
Construction sequence
Wilson Elementary School will close in the fall, and a new Beech Street Elementary will be built at the Beech Street site. The new school will be built in the same ward as the former Wilson Elementary School, and parents, students and staff still will be able to walk there.
As the school closure occurs, Wilson students will be split between Beech and McDonough while the Beech Street Elementary School is being built. Other district students in fifth grade at Beech, Green Acres, McDonough, Smyth, Webster and Weston elementary schools would be moved to middle school.
To avoid overcrowding, modular classrooms will be installed at Beech, McDonough, Parkside, Southside, McLaughlin and Hillside while renovations and additions get started on Hillside and McLaughlin middle schools. Construction on Parkside and Southside middle schools will begin nine months later.
Phase I includes expansion work to make room for fifth-graders in the city's middle schools. Hillside Middle School will expand by 38,000 square feet, McLaughlin Middle School by 35,850 square feet.
Southside Middle School gets a 20,850-square-foot addition, Parkside Middle School a 40,350-square-foot expansion.
The plan mentions consolidating the city's three public high schools into two, along with a magnet school for the arts. No decision has been made on a final location for these high schools.
Consultant SMMA has recommended Manchester Memorial High School as a site of one of the high schools, the area near Gill Stadium as a site for a new high school, and either Manchester High School West or Manchester High School Central as the magnet school site.
Estimated costs for work in "Priority One" of the plan is $278 million to $306 million. These costs do not include the high school.
