Rockland: Under budget school projects could fund new track and field

The Rockland School Building Committee met with members of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Park Commissioners Thursday night, to talk about the possibility of using left over funds from the middle school and high school projects to build a new track and soccer field on Reed Street.

With the possibility of Rockland’s middle and high school projects coming in under budget, the School Building Committee voted to have the school superintendent work with town counsel, to determine the legality of using left over funds to build a new soccer field and track at Bicentennial Field.

They would also like use $100,000 of the money right now to fund a study.

Either way, Rockland School Building Committee Chairman John Rogers believes that town meeting should have the last word.

“Now the issue is whether the money we have left over can be legally spent on Reed Street, which is not connected to the school projects. We’re trying to get a ruling now to determine whether or not we could be authorized to spend some money to do a study, so we can at least have a plan in place so that when we know how much we have left over and we can figure out the legalities of what to do with that money, with town meeting approval. It’s got to go before the town meeting in my opinion, otherwise it will look like we haven’t been upfront”, Rogers said.

And if the money can’t be used, Rogers said the committee will figure out another way of funding the study, so they can be ready with a town meeting article to fund the project.

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