Wakefield Daily Item - Letter to the Editor

Not the Only Option Bronwyn Della-Volpe, December, 2022

On November 28, Northeast Metro Tech Superintendent David DiBarri gave the (Wakefield) Town Council an update on the future new Metro Tech Vocational School and its anticipated location. The following day, the Wakefield Item’s front page featured an article entitled “Officials: New Metro Tech site was only option”.

Mr. DiBarri said that “based on NEMT’s goals to increase student enrollment to 1600, and due to the MA School building Authority’s size requirements, the new Voke would simply not fit on the upper football field” (1), and that the hilltop forested area is the only option available to the NEMT Building Committee. (BC)

For substantiation, I dove into the BC’s own website for documentation. I discovered that both site C2 (football field area) and site C3 (hilltop forest) buildings would be exactly the same size – 383,000 sf, and that all building sites were selected to accommodate an increased enrollment, a total of 1600 students. (2)

The documentation shows that site C2 is, indeed, a very suitable site for our new Voke because it fulfills all the requirements needed. In fact, after researching thousands of pages of documents, as well as in-person visits to the sites, it couldn’t be more clear that the football field site area (C2) is, by far, the best location for our new vocational school.

Therefore, according to the BC’s own documentation, Mr. DiBarri’s statement that our new voke can only be built on the hilltop site C3 was not correct.

It is C3, the hilltop site, that has the most negative impacts. Yet the documents reveal that these negatives have been downplayed, if not completely ignored. There are huge disadvantages for the hilltop site that are simply not mentioned in the list of disadvantages of the hilltop/C3 site in the Final Evaluation of Alternatives Narrative document. For instance, the documentation tells us that there will be “mass tree-clearing and mass blasting operation” for C3 (3). Yet these and other negative aspects of the hilltop site are not included as disadvantages for C3. These glaring omissions create an inaccurate building site rating and false impression for site C3.

Mr.DiBarri said the BC’s goal from day one has been to minimized blasting and cutting down trees, “try to come to a better place when we're done with the environment…” (4). BC Chair Ted Nikole said “we want to look at conservation, we wanted to look at the forest, we wanted to look at, you know, saving the environment” (4).  If that is truly the case and not just lip service, wouldn’t the documents and site selection reflect that commitment? The selection of the forested hilltop site, the most environmentally destructive and expensive site of all, tells us that those words are, indeed, just empty rhetoric.

According to information taken from documents on  the NEMT building Committee’s website, the football field site area C2 provides:  the lowest construction cost; minimal blasting; the shortest construction schedule; plenty of room for an expanded enrollment of 1600 students; new playing fields with room for expansion; convenient visitor parking and good service access;  safe separation of bus and car traffic; can be constructed in a single phase well away from the existing building and without the need for temporary facilities; minimal impact on adjacent occupancy (5) (6).

Since we can have all that, and save money, and preserve the forest, why in the world would David DiBarri and the Northeast Metro Tech Building Committee select a site that costs more, has much more blasting, $40 million in site preparation costs, a high impact on people who live nearby, much longer construction schedule, severe accessibility issues, and destroys 13 acres of Wakefield’s ONLY Core Forest Habitat that is critical for protecting rare wildlife?

And, why would Mr. DiBarri continue to claim something that his own documents show is not accurate?

A vocational school supporter,

Bronwyn Della-Volpe

Sources:

1. The Wakefield Daily Item, 11.29.22, page 1

2. The Final Evaluation of the Alternatives Narrative, page 18

3. Preferred Schematic Report

4. Town Council Meeting, 11.28.22

5. The Final Evaluation of the Alternatives Narrative, page 18

6.  Ibid page 15

7.” Construction Phasing and Temporary Facilities”

Sign the petition:  change.org/saveforest

Find us on Facebook: Save the Forest and Build the Voke

Learn and get involved: Check out the ‘Learn More” and “Seasons in the Sanctuary” sections
https://www.nemtforest.org/