Town waits to hear if state will fund school roof
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Northborough - School officials continue to wait and wonder how much, if any, money the district will receive from the state for the replacement of the roof of the Lincoln Street School.

Acting Superintendent Charles Gobron has met with state offi- cials and hopes to meet with them again to outline just how dire the need is for a new roof to be put on the school and, given the current economic climate, how dire the need is for the district to receive assistance in the matter.

"We've got to replace that roof no matter what," Gobron said. "We know that. We're just hoping we can get a lot of help from the state. The Lincoln Street roof has always been on the list of projects that state was going to help fund, we're just trying to move up on the list and get funded sooner.

"It's not a matter of our wanting our project done before other districts get their projects done," Gobron said. "We just know this roof is not going to survive another winter after this one. If we had any doubts, all the precipitation so far this month has taken those doubts away."

Northborough learned earlier this month that the school had made the Massachusetts School Building Authority's list of projects that may receive state funds to repair, renovate or rebuild schools.

Gobron said the state has put the Lincoln Street Roof in their Repair Assessment category. Gobron added, however, that it's not clear how quickly the district may get the funding.

While replacing the roof is the top priority, Gobron said, he would like to investigate the possibility of addressing other needs at Lincoln Street School, including replacement of parts of the floor.

"The roof replacement remains the priority of the district's capital plan," Gobron said. "Nothing is more important than that at this point."