News

On Monday, the town handed the keys of the old high school to the contractor whom Boehringer Ingelheim has hired to do the interior renovation of the building. But it wasn't just any contractor, it was Morganti, Inc.

The Ridgefield general contracting firm, originally established by the late John Morganti in 1911 or thereabouts, has grown to be one of the nation's 400 largest. The company has built schools (The Ridgefield Elementary School among them), hospitals, other public buildings, commercial and business structures all over the country.

Paul J. Morganti, president of Morganti, Inc., son of the founder and a former selectman of the town, has watched the growth of Ridgefield's school system in the past three decades with more than nominal interest. He was born on Bailey Avenue opposite the old Center School which was a high school from 1915 to 1926 and then he attended the new high school which was added to the south end of the original East Ridge "grammar school".

The north addition, consisting of classrooms, the first school auditorium and the first school gymnasium, was built in 1938. The present gymnasium was added in 1958 when the whole building was also remodeled. In the 1960's, with school population increasing at a fast clip, the town added a classroom wing. It was called the Morganti addition because that firm built it and leased it to the town for a few years until selling it.

As he prepared for his next work at the school on the Ridge, Mr. Morganti was reflective last week. "There's a lot of nostalgia involved," he said, although he added, "I look at it from a taxpayer's viewpoint. I think it's one of the best moves the town of Ridgefield has made for the taxpayer." He said that although he was eager to see the building used again when the new high school first opened, as time wore on, he decided that the town should either find a use for it quickly or tear it down.

Plans for the interior renovation of the old high school into a temporary headquarters for Boehringer are not yet complete, and Morganti bid for the job on the basis of preliminary plans. The architects for the work, Kling of Philadelphia, are now finishing the designs. Morganti's bid was on the guaranteed maximum price basis, which assures Boehringer that if the work costs less than Morganti anticipated when it bid for the job, it will return part of the fee.