Waterford Gets Another $2.4M From State for WHS Project

Waterford spent $227,000, and got back $2.4 million.

“Pretty good return on investment,” Superintendent Jerome Belair said Friday.

Thursday, Belair announced that the town will be getting back another $2.4 million from the state for the ongoing renovation of Waterford High School. That will mean the town will have to bond less money for the project, saving local taxpayers roughly $65,000 a year over 20 years, Waterford Finance Director Rudie Beers said.

“It is not just a one-time cost saving,” Belair said. “It is a savings on an annual basis.”

How?

The state reimburses Waterford at 34.64 percent for all eligible work involved in the renovation, according to Beers. At the beginning of the high school project, the eligible work included basically just the new construction involved in the project, or $42.3 million worth of the $67 million total, she said.

Much of the renovation of the high school was not reimbursed at all by the state, because the town did not apply for “renovate-as-new” status, according to Beers. However, after looking through the plans, the town agreed it could reach renovate-as-new status for the renovation, and earn that 34.64 percent reimbursement by the state.

In the spring of 2012, State Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, and State Rep. Betsy Ritter, D-Waterford, pushed a bill through the state legislature that would allow the town to retroactively apply for renovate-as-new status. Also, the town paid out an additional

Ultimately, the end result was that roughly another $7 million of work was reimbursed by the state. That means the town will get another $2,399,932 from the state to offset the cost of the project, Beers said.

“Does it pay to spend a little bit of money, you bet,” Belair said Thursday night.