Center Moriches School District voters defeat $13.9M bond
Voters in Center Moriches Tuesday rejected a proposed bond to repair the high school auditorium, replace boilers and fix cracked sidewalks. Credit: Tom Lambui
The Center Moriches school superintendent said Wednesday that his district would quickly start looking for alternative ways to fix its aging infrastructure, now that residents have voted down a reconstruction bond issue for the second time in six months.
Voters on Tuesday rejected a $13.9 million bond issue intended to replace school boilers, repair cracked sidewalks and make other improvements. The vote was 434-227. A bigger proposal was turned down in October.
Ron Masera, now in his fifth year as superintendent, said he understood voters' reluctance to approve additional spending and taxation in a district that has a limited tax base. Center Moriches, unlike many districts, was unable to simply roll over one completed reconstruction project and begin another at no extra cost to taxpayers, because it has not relied on bond borrowing for many years.
District officials calculated that the latest bond proposal, had it been approved, would have cost the average taxpayer $111 annually for 15 years. The state would have reimbursed 78% of costs, officials said.
"Any debt is new debt, and that's difficult for people to accept," Masera said during a phone interview Wednesday.
The Center Moriches school board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the district's high school auditorium, and Masera said repairs would be a topic of discussion.
Reconstruction work, had voters approved, would have focused on renovation of aging facilities and on safety features. That would have included major repairs of the high school auditorium, replacement of two school boilers dating back to 1978, and also replacement of an outdoor track.
Tuesday's referendum was preceded by months of discussion and a community survey, in which residents were asked what they considered to be key priorities for the district, officials said.
Center Moriches' latest plan was a pared-down version of a $45 million bond proposal, which was defeated by voters in October. That project would have updated academic facilities as well as made repairs.
