WOBURN - A crowd of East Woburn neighbors rebelled Monday afternoon against the city's plans to erect a new Goodyear School along a portion of Leland Park.

During the introductory Goodyear Building Committee meeting in the WMHS auditorium on Monday afternoon, Mayor Thomas McLaughlin outlined his proposal to build a new educational facility at Leland Park nearby the Central Street parking lot.

The unapproved plan would entail taking approximately 3.5 acres of the parkland for the construction project, although the green space's baseball diamonds, old wading pool area, and skateboard park would remain untouched.

In exchange, the city would offer to designate the current Goodyear School site, which also contains 3.5 acres of space, as parkland.

According to McLaughlin, the Leland Park proposal would ensure that the city could undertake the construction job — if state reimbursements were granted — without asking for any debt exclusion or other type of tax increase to fund the project.

Specifically, the city would tap its healthy $9.2 million school stabilization account to foot its portion of the total construction bill, which city officials have estimated at between $15 and $20 million.

"We feel confident that the interest alone on that money will support the majority of the expense," the mayor said. "We don't have to come to you for any tax increase at all. I would seek full funding from the council for the project to be paid back over 20 years."

During the meeting, the mayor repeatedly stressed that the Recreation Commission has not endorsed the plan, nor has the City Council, School Committee, or state Legislature.

McLaughlin also stipulated that he couldn't guarantee that the present day Goodyear site would remain undeveloped, as such a promise would be contingent upon a vote of the City Council.

However, because the state's constitution requires any parkland being seized to be replicated, and little city-owned property exists in East Woburn to meet that requirement, the Goodyear site was the most viable option for the swap, if a new school building was to be erected at Leland Park.

"No votes have been taken," the mayor explained. "It's not even on the agenda of the Recreation Commission to take a vote."

Keep the Goodyear where it is

During a question-and-answer session towards the end of yesterday's meeting, various audience members urged city officials to reconsider the Goodyear School rebuilding plan.

"Why can't the Goodyear be built where it is?" asked one unidentified audience member, whose question would be repeated over and over again in different forms.

According to the mayor, the city had directed a building consultant to examine the possibility of building a new Goodyear at its current site.

However, because of size constraints, that option was discouraged, as it could jeopardize the safety of pupils who would be attending school in an extremely congested construction zone.

If the city had no other options, it would pursue that course of action, but with considerable restraints on building and construction activity. In that event, the mayor warned, the cost of the project would balloon, as any general contractor would likely seek compensation for having to work under such constrained working conditions.

"Building a new school while the kids are at the present site is not tenable for size reasons and public safety considerations," McLaughlin insisted. "Frankly, if there was no other alternative, we would take a hard look at how we could do it on the site."

Ward 6 Alderman Michael Raymond later lamented the loss of any space at Leland Park, arguing that the green space regularly drew hundreds of youths to the area to participate in sporting events.

Raymond later suggested that the city consider taking land from some other area in East Woburn, perhaps even at the W.R. Grace site if a private land acquisition or taking was necessary.

"I'm not against the school being built. I'd like more thought put into where the school should be built," said Raymond. "Why can't a portion [of the W.R. Grace site] be swapped out for the Goodyear. The filtration plants on the site are close to perfect in taking the pollution off the property."

School board and Goodyear Building Committee member Patricia Chisholm later dismissed that possibility, arguing that any school along Washington Street would be a disaster for kids and parents who would need to battle commuter traffic on a daily basis.

McLaughlin also rejected the premise of trying to acquire private property, either through a consensual sale or an eminent domain proceeding, as that would almost certainly trigger the need for a debt exclusion to fund the acquisition.

"I have to be frank with you, the W.R. Grace site would be a public relations disaster," responded the mayor, predicting the neighborhood and media furor that would result from building a school on the notorious property.

Various other audience members claimed that moving the Goodyear School to Leland Park would result in a traffic and pedestrian nightmare for students, most of whom currently don't need to cross high traffic volume streets such as Montvale Avenue to get to and from school each day.

"My grandchildren walk to and from the Goodyear today. Are they going to be able to walk to a Goodyear at Leland? It's going to be an absolute traffic nightmare," commented Gregg Street resident William Bolster.

"We have kids every morning who cross Cambridge Road to get to the Reeves School. And we have a traffic person there. So it's done and it's done safety across the city," the mayor responded.

Central Street resident Stephen Paladino later agreed with Bolster's traffic assessment and implored the city to get creative and find an alternative plan for the Goodyear.

According to Paladino, the city was going to create a permanent problem with the Leland plan in order to prevent a difficult situation for students and parents during an 18-month construction phase.

However, according to Goodyear Principal Christine Kelley, there was no place to house current students at the school due to space constraints at other nearby facilities.

"The school department recently had us do a tabulation of the numbers for every school. We're pretty full. My enrollment fluctuates between 220 and 240," Kelley said.