Voters at Whitman Town Meeting approved the bill for the demolition of the Holt School but rejected a move to combine the treasurer and collector’s offices.

Article 13 on the Special Town Meeting warrant was amended on the floor and divided into two parts.

The demolition of the former Holt School has been a major headache for the town.

One part of the article was to vote to take $715,000 from the Capital Stabilization Fund. The other part was to take $135,000 from incumbent police and all other services and $200,000 from free cash. The town then voted and approved the amended article 13.

Before the vote Town Administrator Frank Lynam explained the demolition process of the Holt School.

The demolition began by taking down the northeast corner of the building. It was found to be coated with 15 percent asbestos. Also found in the floor was a layer of asbestos film. There were three pipes found running the length of the building that also contained asbestos. The plan was then to reach in the building and grab the pipes, but the entire building collapsed. The entire building then was considered to be contaminated.

“It’s my belief if they had properly identified those pipes in the roof area and we had an opportunity to remove them, it would have cut the project by $800,000,” said Lynam.

The standard for surveying the building is to check through the core, starting at the brick. The consulting firm Jaques Whitford Survey failed to properly identify the amount of asbestos material, said Lynam.

“It is likely that if we had been aware of all the materials in the building we would have had the opportunity for better bidding,” said Lynam.

Lynam feels the demolition company is entitled to be paid for their work.

“We do need to pay this bill, but we are looking forward for a town council to remedy the bill,” said Steve Bois, chairman of the Finance Committee.

There were reports done on the building in the past for demolition, and one was for $800,000 explained Michael Lotti. He wanted to know why the estimate for the job was for $350,000.

“Costs are 10 times that,” said Lotti. He wants to know why someone didn’t do something about this.

“I am a member of Whitman. I am a tax payer of Whitman,” said Lynam. “This is a project that needed to be accomplished.”

“Even if we knew the asbestos was there we would have to take it down that would cost $800,000, just with what we knew,” said Lynam. “If they missed the pipes we’d still be here talking about this. When we ask you to vote, we ask you to pay the town the bill owes.”

Also up for some heated discussion was the article to combine the offices of Town Treasurer and Town Collector.

There are 200 communities that combined offices with similar duties, explained Lynam. Town Treasurer Victoria Mulligan argued that replacing her and the Town Collector would in fact cost more money. She also said that it would be removing a safe guard. She doesn’t believe in any financial situation where the person collecting they money is the person spending the money.

The article was then voted on and failed by a count of 55 yes, 65 no.