The Amityville School Board agreed this week to hold a vote asking residents of the school district to approve an additional $7 million to complete construction and remediate damages at the Park Avenue School complex. The vote is scheduled for January 15.

The funding, if approved by the voters, will include money not only to complete the project but also to pay for attorney’s fees and other costs associated with the district’s lawsuits related to the case. Money is also allocated for the purchase of new furniture, which was not included in the first bond, said School Board President Stephanie Andrews. And, a "healthy" contingency fund will be established, Andrews added.

"We don’t know what we are going to find when we have to open those walls and we want to be prepared," she said.

The district hopes to recoup some of these additional costs through litigation against its contractors, two of whom the district called into default. But school officials have said from the outset that the district, already strapped for space, cannot wait until those cases are resolved to complete the project.

The Park Avenue Complex renovation has run into a number of major issues since it began two years ago, and the board was at odds over how to handle the problems as they arose, causing some delays. Since May, when the board’s MAC Pack minority, made up of Marietta Mee, Stephanie Andrews and Patricia Cahaney, gained the support of a new Trustee, Bill Manton, it has moved more decisively, firing its contract manager, hiring a new one and proceeding legally to bring a resolution to the project.

"Unless we do something this project is not going to move forward," said Andrews, explaining why the board believes it has no alternative but to turn to the public, once again, for funding.

Andrews said the board could simply add the additional costs to the general budget, but that would be very costly since none of it would be state aidable. In addition, the district is capped on how much money it can add to the budget each year, raising the issue of timing.

"Right now we are extremely tight for space at the Middle School and if we don’t move now and get Park Avenue opened, then we will have to make some accommodations such as buying or renting more portables, which will be very expensive. Money (interest rates) right now is cheap and we will not have to borrow it all at once, so this bond makes the most sense," she said.

To date, the board has not worked up the actual cost to residents, if the bond is approved, but will be holding public meetings and publicizing that information later.

Andrews said she was aware of the mood of the public and the lack of confidence it has in the board due to the problems plaguing the project. "It would have been nice if the project were done right, but it wasn’t," she said. "But this board is making every attempt to gain the public’s trust and let them know that we are working for them and on are on top of things."

To help elevate that level of trust, the board has established a committee of local professionals to assist them as the project moves forward. That committee includes Dave Heller, a local plumber, Dave Dubinsky, Peter Keller and Nelson Hernandez, architects, Edward Moore, a mechanical engineer and Tom Cahill a Civil Engineer. The men are providing their services to the district without charge and will regularly inspect the project and report back to the board, giving their assessment of how things are going.

Andrews said these professionals will give objective assessments of the work and enable the board to act promptly and take any corrective action needed.

"Hopefully this committee will review the quality of the work and help renew the public’s confidence in the project," said Andrews.

Dubinsky said that he and the committee will review the work as well as the payment authorizations to ensure that no contractor is paid unless the work is completed and meets quality standards—one of the major problems the district faced during the first phase of the project.

"I think this committee is a good idea because each member has certain expertise and can advise the board," he said. "The board cannot be expected to know everything about construction. so our committee will give them the information they need and the board members can make their decisions more prudently."