Newburyport City Council Approves $7M School Roof Bond, Bartlett Mall Grant

NEWBURYPORT -- March 23, 2026, Newburyport City Council unanimously approved a roughly $7 million school roof bond and voted 10-1 to accept a $775,000 federal grant for the Bartlett Mall frog pond restoration at its March 23 meeting. The school bond, covering roof work at Newburyport High School and the Nock Middle School under the state's Accelerated Repair Program, carries a 43 percent Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement, leaving an estimated net city cost of $4.1 million financed over 30 years at roughly 4.5 percent interest, about $253,000 annually in new debt service. Budget and Finance Chair Councilor Stephen Zed voted yes on the roofs while warning that "on a financial basis, this has no merit to pass" given the unresolved question of where the annual payment will come from in an already strained operating budget. On the Bartlett Mall, Zed cast the lone dissenting vote on the $775,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, arguing that CPA capital funding does not eliminate an estimated $20,000 to $40,000 per year in operating costs for pump systems and maintenance. The $5.2 million total restoration project, which also draws on roughly $800,000 in Morrill Foundation gifts already in escrow, depends on the council approving a companion Community Preservation Act bond of approximately $3.5 million at the April 13 meeting; failure to appropriate the full project cost would trigger withdrawal of the federal grant under LWCF rules.