Luke Stein, the Montauk School’s chief custodian, spelled out the need for a renovation at the Montauk School Board meeting on Tuesday. “Our building ranges from 25 to 98 years old,” he said, “and it’s really starting to show its age.”
Mr. Stein said he has had issues managing the heating in the building over the past two weeks. “I’ve had people coming in working on the boilers,” he said. “Thank goodness we added split units into 98 percent of the rooms in the building.” He also described how part of the issue is heat seeping out through the aging doors and the windows.
“Everything you just said is pure justification for our next step,” said Diane Hausman, president of the board, “and moving towards this building project that’s just something that has to get done.”
Earlier in the meeting Joshua Odom, the district’s superintendent, said an anticipated bond levy for th e construction could be close to $38.57 million, but the term of the bond has not been determined.
“Obviously our bond term we won’t have for a little bit quite yet,” Mr. Odom said. “That’s the number we don’t have control over.”
The term will be determined by New York State once an environmental impact report on the project is returned. It is expected that the term will fall somewhere in the range of 20 to 25 years. This would leave the annual debt somewhere between $2.65 million and $2.95 million and the projected incremental tax increase between $87.54 and $78.57 for the average homeowner.
The board has been working on this project for several months alongside the architecture firm BBS, which also provided the school with a building conditions survey through which Mr. Stein has been able to focus on needed projects.
“I have to commend Luke as well for tackling projects on the building conditions survey from BBS,” Mr. Odom said, adding later that this “resulted in substantial savings with the district.”