School district reaps benefits of timing with new building

Date: 3/1/2011

Feb. 28, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM — The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee voted on Feb. 22 to issue $22 million in bonds to finance a large portion of the construction of the new Minnechaug Regional High School building.

Through a competitive bidding process, the School Committee was able to award Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., with the bonds at a fixed borrowing rate of 4.68 percent.

Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) Superintendent M. Martin O'Shea said the committee was happy with the outcome after School Committee Chair Peter Salerno had said in a recent meeting that it appeared the "sweet spot" for finding a low percentage rate had passed.

"That percentage rate came back lower than we had anticipated in recent weeks," O'Shea said.

He also pointed out the rate was much lower than the 5.25 percent originally projected by the committee.

"We're certainly pleased with any financing plan that is below that," he said.

Salerno said in a prepared statement, "For the life of these bonds, the taxpayers in our two towns will pay less in interest costs than we had anticipated in 2009 and even less than we had anticipated in recent weeks. We appreciate the support our financing plan has received from our towns' leaders, our taxpayers and members of our communities."

Timing continues to be good for HWRSD, according to O'Shea, and that fortuitous timing will ultimately offer significant savings to taxpayers in Wilbraham and Hampden.

Earlier savings to the towns came to be thanks to a poor economic climate in the construction industry, resulting in a very low winning bid of $53,618,500 by Fontaine Bros. All told, it is projected the new school will cost $64,996,284, as opposed to the originally approved figure of $82,271,129.

"The timing has been right for each major milestone — the timing of our agreement with the [Massachusetts School Building Authority], the timing of the construction bidding and now the timing of the borrowing," O'Shea said.

Construction of the building remains on schedule as the crew has been erecting the steel framework of the building through the winter.

"Things are looking good," O'Shea said. "Before the winter, Fontaine Bros. was ahead of schedule. Though the winter has slowed the process somewhat, they are still ahead of schedule."