GILL — Two options have emerged in considering how to treat Gill Elementary School’s peeling floor tiles — a partial fix, and a more costly total replacement. The Selectboard has favored the more expensive option in conversations so far, describing it as the more future-proof of the two.
Gill Elementary’s tiles began noticeably peeling this spring, which in certain places in the building has caused asbestos to be released into the air. Those rooms have been locked to teachers and students.
Heath Cummings, buildings and grounds manager of the Gill-Montague Regional School District, has said the tile issue seems to have been caused by the new ventilation systems installed in the building as a safety measure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ventilation system caused the tiles to dry out and decay much faster than normal.
For the town, which owns the building, addressing the problem has become a high priority, and is expected to be the major capital project on this spring’s Annual Town Meeting warrant, according to Town Administrator Ray Purington. A vote to allow a debt exclusion for the purpose of financing the project will appear in the May 17 town election.
Purington and Selectboard members have said the project needs to be done this summer, considering it has become a safety issue.
“We need to do the floors, and the time to do them has to be now,” Purington said.
Cost estimates for the project are not final yet, but the Selectboard and Cummings have discussed rough estimates ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, depending on whether the town chooses to replace all the school’s flooring, or to only fix the urgently problematic areas.
Although it would be more expensive, the Selectboard so far has favored the idea of fully replacing the building’s floors.
One reason is that, if the current tiles are left alone, it will only be a matter of time before they degrade further, and then the town would have to do a similar project. Better to do one big project than to revisit the issue several years from now, said Selectboard Chair Randy Crochier.
“It doesn’t make sense, for me, to go back to Town Meeting year after year for more projects at the school,” Crochier said.
The other big reason is that interest rates are extraordinarily low right now, meaning that financing the project this year might be about as cheap as it will ever be.
“Interest rates are about as low as — I won’t say as low as they can possibly go, but they’re almost as low as they can possibly go,” Purington said.
The question on the May 17 election ballot will be whether to allow a debt exclusion for the project. The ballot question does not include a dollar amount for the project in question, Purington said. The cost will not appear until the Annual Town Meeting warrant.
Reach Max Marcus at
mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.