Berlin Mayor Adam Salina Defends Taking State Money To Fund High School Shortfall

Mayor Adam Salina was met with criticism from the two Republicans on the Town Council when the topic of the state awarding the town $15 million at the last Town Council meeting. 

Republicans David Evans and Eric Buhrendorf both balked at the town taking the money and feared that the town would be left holding the bag or that the town residents would see their state taxes go up.

Mayor Adam Salina defended the town's choice to accept the funds.

"Number one, there is a process in place by the town charter that we have to follow and that asks the town to get an estimate," Salina said. "It cost about $100,000 and that is not a true or accurate estimate. We could have spent $2 or $3 million but how can you spend that much when you don't know what comes first. Right now, there are 18 other schools on the state list for school contribution and we are right in line with all of the other schools that are over budget. It is not unusual.

"And number two, if we didn't take the money from the state somebody else would have taken it. How many years have the residents of Berlin been paying our taxes to Hartford to fund other towns' and cities' projects? Now is the time for us to use the dollars and keep the high school project on schedule."

Berlin Public Works Director Art Simonian said the project is not like building a house. 

"There was confusion at the beginning and that is quite common in a project like this," Simonian said. "The budget is established first but you really have no idea what the project is going to cost. When you build a house, you have the plans and you pay the price and that's it. Here, we have a budget with no idea what it is going to cost because we have no actual construction bids. The town charter and the charter for most towns work the same way. This has been going on since 2006 so the design concepts have been around since then. There have been some escalations in cost, definitely material cost. So costs and prevailing wages are definitely higher than they were in 2006."

Salina said if the town did not accept the funds and were not able to move forward, the construction would have fallen behind a whole year. 

"Wethersfield and Meriden are doing high school projects and we are very consistent in costs with them," Simonian added. 

When asked if there was someone or something to blame for the inflated price tag, Salina said, "Blame is in the past. The action is going forward on the high school renovation project. I would say, let's not look back but look forward to an outstanding high school that we will have built in a few years."