By Adam Swift
The town council president, superintendent of schools, and fire chief all expressed their thanks for the April 5 special election outcome, and promised to be steadfast stewards of the money voters approved spending during last week’s town council meeting.
Voters approved a $38.5 million debt exclusion for the construction of a new fire station at the site of the old middle school on Pauline Street, as well as two overrides totalling $4.9 million for the school budget.
“I want to say how grateful we are to this community for stepping up,” said Council President Jim Letterie.
While thanking everyone who came out to vote, Letterie said he wanted to address those who may have voted against the financial questions.
“There may be people who voted no because they didn’t think it was a worthwhile project or that the funding wasn’t really needed,” said Letterie. “But I think … that the vast majority of those people voted because times are tough and they just couldn’t find the money in their regular budgets. I just want to reach out to those people to say that this is the council’s job, the superintendent’s job, to make sure on the council side that this project comes in on or below budget.”
On both the town and school side, Letterie said leaders need to be cognizant of the money that has been allotted to them by the actions of the voters.
“We want to make sure we do our very best to earn your trust and earn your respect, because Winthrop is a better place right now for these three questions being passed,” he said. “It’s going to give the schools the opportunity to maintain the progress they have made and continue to go forward, and it’s giving our firefighters who put their lives on the line day in and day out a state-of-the-art facility so that they can continue doing the work they are doing.”
Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard said that she also understands that there are people in the community struggling to make ends meet.
“I do think that the investment in the community is going to be really clear to everybody,” said Howard. “The school department does plan to continue the good work that we have been doing in managing the budget for the last … eight years and being transparent with our budget, what our services are, and continue to seek grants as they are available to offset the budget.”
One of the questions that was passed will allow for $1.4 million to fund an educational stabilization account.
“The passing of the educational stabilization funds will allow the district to maintain a sense of financial stability in the coming years, and hopefully allow us to provide a quality education and a safe and supportive learning environment.”
Fire Chief Scott Wiley thanked the voters, the town council, the firehouse building committee, and the Winthrop firefighters for their support and hard work.
“Without your support, this would have never gone on the ballot,” Wiley told the council. “This is over 40 years in the making; we’ve been waiting for decades to get this accomplished.”
Wiley noted that Letterie put in much of his time on the vote, attending every firehouse committee meeting and coffee hour over the past several months.
“We also had huge support from Local 1070 from the firefighters; their support helped put this over the top,” Wiley said. “I’m incredibly excited for the upward mobility, this is a huge improvement for our department in general. It’s not just a building, this is going to be a huge, dramatic improvement in the service that we provide to the community.”