LOCAL MEETING ROUNDUP.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

COLUMN: LOCAL MEETING ROUNDUP

Westboro

School chief wants Gibbons project revived

WESTBORO - More than a year after the Sarah W. Gibbons Middle School renovation project fell into limbo, Superintendent Marianne O'Connor told the School Committee last night it is now time to move forward.

Mrs. O'Connor said she plans to ask the School Committee to establish a School Building Committee to perform a feasibility study to re-energize the estimated $5.3 million renovation project at the Gibbons School at 20 Fisher St. The school needs a new roof, new doors, new windows, electrical repairs and upgrades to the heating, air conditioning and ventilation system.

At the May 2010 town meeting, voters approved $175,000 to hire a project manager.

"The project is sort of in limbo," Mrs. O'Connor said.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority will have a conference call with local officials to outline the next steps.

Also last night, the School Committee formed a subcommittee - composed of members Stephen Doret and Jody Hensley - to study a draft of the School Consolidation Study to begin to make recommendations to the full School Committee on how to deal with some of the concepts detailed in the report.

- Donna Boynton

Uxbridge

Officials try to set record straight on athletic fields

UXBRIDGE - While no members of the public attended last night's information session at the Senior Center concerning the high school building project and the proposed addition of athletic fields, members of the School Building Committee and the handful of town officials who attended presented clarifications about misinformation they had heard around town.

The $3.88 million athletic fields proposal is on the warrant for the special town meeting at 10 a.m. Sept. 24 at Uxbridge High School, and an election for a debt exclusion is scheduled for Sept. 27.

"Lately, the School Building Committee has taken some public lumps," said committee member Jane F. Keegan.

She said that contrary to rumors, information about the high school building project, including alternative proposals for athletic fields, has been available since the town manager's June 2010 report on the high school.

Ms. Keegan also said that public information has specified that, except for the proposed athletic fields, the cost of the new high school, including all furnishings and equipment, would be $43 million. The Massachusetts School Building Authority is expected to reimburse the town up to $23 million.

Project Manager Peter L'Hommedieu from Shawmut Design and Construction confirmed that construction was progressing as budgeted.

The Finance Committee is expected to publish tomorrow analyses comparing the cost of building the athletic fields now, later or never, according to Ms. Keegan and Town Manager Sean Hendricks. Information...