Fri, Dec 10, 1999

By MEREDYTH WATERMAN
Staff Writer

BLACKSTONE -- The Blackstone-Millville Regional District School Committee voted last night to target a 33-acre Federal Street property for the proposed new middle school.

The site of the former Zerva farm, near the intersection of Rocco Drive, was offered for sale to the district for the school earlier this fall by the town of Blackstone.

"There's no question in my mind that this would be an ideal place for a school," said Vice Chairman Paul Mercier. "This is a beautiful piece of property, and we need to get this going."

The property was one of 12 in Blackstone considered in the spring by a subcommittee charged with identifying possible locations for the new grades-6-to-8 school, which needs town meeting approval from voters in both communities.

The site did not make the top three of the subcommittee, whose report called it an "awkward lot with little frontage."

But after several visits, tests of the earth's permeability and Blackstone's offer, the School Committee changed its tune.

According to School Committee members who visited the site, the land is not as it appears from the road. Though it has little frontage and meets the road at an incline, it widens out toward the back and there is a flat, elevated area roughly 2,000 feet back that the committee has identified as the likely building site.

Test pits showed that the soil was not as impermeable as initially thought. With light equipment, workers dug 10-foot holes with no trouble at all in the area tagged for the school building, School Superintendent Aldo L. Cecchi said.

Another advantage Cecchi trumpeted was the property's nearness to Blackstone's sewer line, which runs to Rocco Drive, just a few hundred feet from the site.

Mercier said the elevated land where the building would be built would also provide a scenic vista.

If voters approve the purchase, the land would be a bargain for the department, he added.

Blackstone bought the property for $244,000 from the Zerva family in July, with the intention of using it for one of several purposes, including the school, ballfields, a new library, or another municipal building.

The Board of Selectmen has extended an offer to sell it to the regional school district for the same price it paid this summer.

The committee voted unanimously to appoint a design selection committee -- essentially the same committee that reviewed the possible sites, minus School Committee members Leo Trottier and Mercier -- to begin the search for architects.

The committee will put out a call for proposals from the architects, and whichever plan is accepted by the School Committee would then go before voters in both towns at town meetings this spring.

The committee also voted last night to pay for an extensive survey for the site, since none can be found in its history and the Department of Education would require one.

The selection of a site ends the committee's months of wrestling over the school's location. The 57-acre site across from the existing middle school and high school site on Lincoln Street was also considered, but no agreement could be reached with the owners.

The committee also gave serious consideration to putting the new school on the grounds of the existing school at the expense of the already-too-few athletic fields.

However, building the school off-site does leave the committee with a few obstacles to face, Cecchi said.

The Department of Environmental Protection has given the schools two years to come up with a plan to fix the existing school's ailing septic system, which has leached through the boys' varsity soccer field during each of last two years.

Without being able to tie in sewer construction to the construction of a new school on-site, the department will now need to deal with the septic system as a separate issue. Fixing the worn field hockey field and track will also need to be considered, since they will remain on the site, Assistant Superintendent Frederick W. Hartnett said.