A divided Select Board Tuesday night approved spending $140,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money to finish the transformation of the former Oak Street elementary school into three affordable apartments.
The work, which was originally budgeted at under a half million dollars, has more than doubled to $1,168,000.
The once-modest project has attracted massive interest from Plymouth seniors and veterans, for whom the apartments are targeted – 1,320 seniors and 187 veterans have applied for the single-bedroom apartments. Those numbers illustrate the need for modestly priced housing in town as property values rise beyond the means of many residents.
The renovation work has a three-year history of cost overruns. In 2021, Town Meeting approved spending $475,000 on the three apartments. But that budget did not meet bids from contractors, so last year, Town Meeting approved an additional $381,000 and the state awarded the project another $150,000. The town also added another $22,000 in federal ARPA funds – money that was doled out to communities during the pandemic.
Then came the latest hurdle: the sewer main. Chris Plourde, assistant executive director of the Plymouth Housing Authority, told the Select Board in August that it would cost more than anticipated to connect the building’s plumbing to the sewer main down the street. He asked for another $140,000 to finish the project. That was the sum the Select Board voted on Tuesday evening.
Even if there are no additional expenses, each one-bedroom apartment will have cost the town $389,000, though that figure also includes the restoration of the historic building.
The Select Board approved the funding by a vote of 3-2, with chair Dick Quintal, John Mahoney, and Charlie Bletzer in favor, and vice chair Kevin Canty and David Golden opposed.
“I’m very pro-affordable housing, but not at any cost, because then you get a reputation that people can run costs up on these, and that’s not good for everyone,” Canty said.
The town had $203,000 left in ARPA funds before the Select Board vote Tuesday night. Canty said using ARPA money for the Oak Street building would mean the town would have to find other sources of funding for other needs, such as replacing hand guns for police officers, a skiff for the harbormaster, a plow truck for the schools, new fencing around the Sirrico Memorial Playground on South Street, a school bus, two pickup trucks for the Department of Public Works, and new windows in the public library.
Golden agreed.
“The board has an opportunity to direct these funds to more worthwhile projects that benefit the greater community,” he said.
He proposed putting the project out to bid to private contractors.
But Quintal objected, saying that if the project is sold to a developer, it would no longer provide subsidized housing through the federal Section 8 voucher program. The three apartments will not have fixed rent. Rather, the Housing Authority will charge 30 percent of the tenant’s income, Plourde explained to the Independent.
Bletzer said it was too late in the process to not finish the work.
“This project is 95 percent done,” he said, adding that neighbors support it and arguing that the building should not sit vacant.
Plourde told the board in previous meetings that the building could be ready for tenants within weeks.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.