NORTH ADAMS
We were pleased to see the City Council's vote on the bond for renovations at the former Silvio O. Conte Middle School remain unchanged at Tuesday night's meeting.
The 7 to 2 vote to approve the $29.7 million borrowing order to finance the project to turn Conte into a K-7 elementary school mirrored the council's Jan. 22 vote, with councilors John Barrett III and Marie Harpin voting against it both times.
We have said here in the past we support this project for several reasons, not the least of which is the state has signed on to pay 80 percent of that $29.7 million.
The past two council meetings have seen productive debate on the project, but now what's next?
The North Adams School Committee will be next to take up the matter, but we imagine not before city resident Robert Cardimino takes up the banner of getting the funding placed on a special ballot to give the voters of North Adams the final say.
He passionately said he would do as much at the close of Tuesday's meeting, vowing to go door to door from morning until night to gather the signatures needed to force the special election.
We have said before we're often fans of a plebiscite, but should we not sometimes let our elected officials make, well, decisions? Isn't that what they were elected to do? This project has been vetted by those put in place to make informed decisions for the benefit of the largest number of city residents as possible.
We hope that if Mr. Cardimino
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