WILLIAMSBURG — The Helen E. James School building, which has stood for more than 100 years, is set to be demolished this year.
The school will come down as part of a $5.1 million project to build a public safety complex on the property. Borrowing for the complex passed a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion vote Monday by a vote of 358 to 187, following the project’s approval at an April 3 Special Town Meeting by a vote of 259 to 48.
The special town meeting article authorized the transfer of $1 million of town savings and the borrowing of $4.1 million for the project.
“I am thrilled that it passed,” said Charlene Nardi, Williamsburg’s town administrator.
Jim Ayres, who chairs the Owner’s Project Manager Steering Committee, said the school is expected to be taken down this year to take advantage of a positive bidding environment and get the site ready for construction.
“The goal is to have the building down prior to cold weather,” he said, but no sooner than July.
Next, the steering committee will be passing the project on to a building committee that the Select Board is set to appoint. Some preliminary construction is likely this year, Ayres said, although the project has not yet gone out to bid. And he said that the complex will open in 2022.
The project’s approval comes after years of study. And the decision to take down the school comes after the Owner’s Project Manager Steering Committee commissioned a study that estimated that incorprating the building into the new public safety complex would cost $7.5 million, while building the complex and performing necessary repairs to the school was estimated at $6.7 million.
The steering committee started meeting in 2018 to determine the site and scope of a new public safety complex.
“I think that the committee worked so hard to make sure the public was educated,” Nardi said.
The Owner’s Project Manager Steering Committee was the successor to the Public Safety Complex Committee, which was active from 2015 to 2017 and determined that the James School was the best location for a public safety complex, after reviewing more than 140 sites. In November 2020, the Owner’s Project Manager Steering Committee came to the same conclusion as its predecessor.
“I think that the work by the committee and the committee before was thorough,” said Jason Connell, a member of the steering committee and Williamsburg’s fire chief. “A lot of hard work went in, a lot of long hours. I think the committee did a great job.”
Because the town is using savings to cover part of the cost of the project, Ayres said that its impact won’t be felt by taxpayers until either fiscal year 2023 or fiscal year 2024.
According to the committee, the average annual property tax increase for the average single family house of $279,389 will be $223.
“Our employees will have a building that’s designed to support the work that they do,” Nardi said.
The new building will have a ventilation system that will keep exhaust from the firetrucks out of the building, which is an issue in the current facilities, Connell said. He also said trucks will be able to be washed inside during the winter and that there will be a decontamination shower. Neither of the current fire facilities has showers.
“Anything that happens, we have to bring it home to our families,” he said.
The Helen E. James School dates back to 1914 and was named after a 19th-century philanthropist. It ceased operating as a high school in 1971 and as an elementary school in 2014.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.