$18-million-dollars. the fate of a new amherst elementary school project is back in the hands of town residents one last time. 22news reporter alessandra martinez joins us live to explain the final push to try and merge two
schools. after two failed votes, a petition has forced a third try to accept this project. the town clerk is validating signatures right now. it's the school project teachers and town residents keep fighting
for. town meeting has already twice rejected state funding that would help pay for half of the 67-milion dollar project to build a new school and merge wildwood and fort river elementary schools.
that didn't stop 14-hundred people from siging a petition 5 days after the 2nd rejection. according to the town's charter, that's more than enough to overturn the town meeting vote, and send the proposal now to a town-wide
referendum. so now everybody in the community will be able to vote on this one question, and vote yes or no. in order for it to pass, it needs a two-thirds "yes" vote, and 18% of the entire town needs to come here
to town hall and vote. that's just under 3-thousand votes. a "no" vote could mean an end to the project altogether. we don't have 34-million dollar in cash to buy the new school, so if we don't borrow the money, we can't do
the new school. bockelman said getting this vote to pass will be difficult. the last time a town referendum was called to turn over a town meeting vote was in 2005 for the plum brook project to build soccer fields. and that vote failed.
the select board still has to decide when to hold the it'll most likely be in march during the town's annual elections. live from the hc bureau in noho, am 22news.
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