The town of Tisbury will hold a special town meeting on Tuesday, April 2, to hear reports of the committees appointed to investigate and recommend fire apparatus to be purchased by the town, the location for a fire house or other plans for housing such apparatus, and to act on a recommendation of the schoolhouse building committee that an additional sum of $35,000 be raised and appropriated to the present plans and specifications. The meeting will also vote whether the town will raise $200 to rent same public parking space as last year; and whether to authorize the selectmen to pay the $500 already raised for promoting baseball to the Vineyard Haven Bears in a lump sum.

 

A circular letter from the school building committee has been mailed to the town voters explaining the reasons for its action.

 

Originally the town voted to construct the new building on the site of the present school, and also voted to raise and appropriate the sum of $150,000 to pay for the building and its equipment. At a later meeting it was voted to change the location to the lot formerly owned by John Howland and Grace Foster, which the town has acquired at a cost of $6500. The amount available from the original appropriation is $143,500.

 

The building committee submits in its letter to voters that the committee, the architect, state authorities school committee, and school faculty studied the plan exhaustively with the result that they concluded that the construction and equipping of a satisfactory building would call for the expenditure of a greater sum than that now available.

 

“Reducing the plan to a minimum,” the committee and architect at length submitted plans and specifications which they had striven to keep within the limit of the appropriation. Ten bids were received. All but one were from mainland firms, the local bid being submitted by the H. N. Hinckley Contracting Co., the figures of which were $174,333. Only one was within the limit of the appropriation, that of A. M. Lumberg of St. Louis, for $149,000. This figure does not include equipment, furniture, grading the lot, architect’s fee, superintendent’s salary and other incidentals totalling $29,000. As this additional amount is required and as the lowest bid is $5,500 in excess of the unexpended balance of the original appropriation, the article in the warrant calls for action on the raising and appropriating of $35,000, which the building committee recommends.

 

In the event that the town takes favorable action on this article, the contract will probably be awarded to the Lumberg company, a representative of which is already on the ground and has offered the assurance that work will begin within three or four days after the contract is awarded. The company comes to the Vineyard highly recommended by residents of Newburyport where it has just completed a Masonic temple.