ITEM FILE PHOTO
Marblehead Town Hall.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
MARBLEHEAD — A special town election will be held next month to decide whether a study to renovate the Elbridge Gerry School and a fire pumper truck should be excluded from Proposition 2½.
Earlier this month, Town Meeting approved funding for the $750,000 study and a new $620,000 fire truck. But a majority vote is required by taxpayers.
Prop 2½ places limits on the amount a community can raise through property taxes. A municipality cannot levy more than two and a half percent of the total value of all taxable real and personal property.
If approved, the fire truck, would cost a median single-family homeowner an additional $74.40 over 10 years, the length of the bond. For the study, that same median single-family taxpayer would be responsible for another $55.80 over the next five years.
Marblehead Town Administrator John McGinn said the state would pay about 32 percent for the cost of the study, or $243,525. Taxpayers would then be responsible for $506,475.
The feasibility study would be conducted for a K-1 school that has never been improved since it was built in 1906. The survey is the first step to qualify for state money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
The next step would be project approval at Town Meeting in 2018. Construction options would be considered after the feasibility study is completed. The process could take up to two years.
The Special Town Election is June 14.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley