Mayor James J. Fiorentini > Press Release

February 29, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MAYOR: “EXPANDED HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT SHOULD GO FORWARD”

Mayor James J. Fiorentini today recommended that the expanded High School renovation project proceed.Fiorentini said that a drop in municipal bond interest rates, combined with the City’s improved bond rating and the ability to space the project out over a number of years, would make it possible to undertake the expanded project.

Fiorentini said that he would appear before the City Council Tuesday night to ask that they authorize the expanded project and proceed forward.

Fiorentini said that after review and consultation with the Department of Revenue, he was told the City does not have to include funding in next year’s budget, a fact which Fiorentini called “critical” to the decision.Fiorentini said that he would recommend that the project be put out to bid in sections so that the city could accept, or reject, portions of the project making the costs manageable.

Fiorentini also said that a review with his bond counsel and financial analysts showed that the city’s improved bond rating, combined with declining interest rates on municipal bonds, meant the city would be able to afford the project.

Fiorentini said that despite the city’s difficult budget for next year, he believed that the city was on a good footing overall to afford this.He called fixing the high school “an investment worth making.”

“Although our finances in the City are tight, there are areas where investment is warranted.One of them is an investment in the flagship school of our City, Haverhill High School.Tuesday night, I will ask the City Council to accept this expanded project and allow us to proceed forward.

“This expanded project will allow us to put in a new electrical system in the high school, making the new computer labs and new computers fully operable.This project is a long term investment in the future of our city and one that we should undertake.It will improve the educational experience we offer to students at our high school,” Fiorentini noted.

“Lower interest rates, the ability to not bond the project next year, and the ability to bid this out in sections makes the project costs manageable, and an investment we should make.This project will help the high school, and will help our overall image as a city.

“This project will for me, be the culmination of what I have been working on since 1994, when I was the first chairperson of the Haverhill High School Site Council, and let a group of parents to approach the city council and ask that the high school be renovated.When I first ran for city council in 1995, I ran on a platform that our high school, which I called the ‘flagship school in our city’ needed to be fixed,” Mayor Fiorentini recalled.

“Expanding the project to include new outside site work, a new electrical system and a new appearance for the interior of the school, means that we will have a high school that looks like a new school, for a small fraction of what other cities have paid for new schools.”

Fiorentini credited the State legislative delegation, led by State Representative Brian Dempsey, with making this possible:

“We would never be able to afford this project on our own.Thanks to the hard work of our legislative delegation, we are able to get reimbursed for 68% of the funding.

“It is an offer we cannot refuse” said the Mayor.