Meeting to update town on high school construction

Date: 9/6/2011

Sept. 5, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — The Select Board will host Tom Murphy, project manager for the new Longmeadow High School building project, during its Sept. 19 meeting for an update on the progress of the construction.

Mark Gold, chair of the Select Board, told Reminder Publications the presentation would be one of many the board will host throughout the building project in the interest of transparency.

“This is the biggest project this town has ever done and people have the right to know what is going on,” Gold said. “We’re spending $44 million of our own money and there should be no question now, two years from now when the school is finished, or two years after that that everything was on the up and up. As the Select Board, we have to make sure that happens.”

Murphy will make a brief presentation to the board and then will answer questions from the town. All questions must be submitted in writing prior to Sept. 15 and no questions will be allowed from the floor at the meeting.

“Even the Select Board has to submit their questions. I just finished writing and submitting mine,” Gold said. “By doing it this way, it lets a larger amount of the electorate get their questions to us.”

Gold also said that by receiving the questions early, the Select Board will be doing a service to the town by making sure Murphy is properly prepared to answer all of the questions.

“I want [the builders] to come with the answers and not say, ‘Gee, I’ll have to get back to you on that,’” he said. “We’re not playing stump the project manager here and we’re not playing gotcha politics.”

Gold added that a submission will be thrown out if it is deemed inappropriate.

“The intent here is to get important questions answered so we as a town are educated as to what is going on with the biggest project in the history of our town,” Gold said. “We are using the most cursory of filters that basically comes down to this: If the question is inflammatory, it is not going to be asked.”

While questions from the floor will not be answered at this meeting, Gold said he plans to suggest a public forum at which he can directly answer questions.

Those wishing to submit questions to the Select Board may do so by e-mailing them to townhall@longmeadow.org or dropping them off at the Select Board office at Town Hall.

Those who cannot attend the meeting can view it on Longmeadow Cable Access Television.