FALL RIVER — In February 2022, the City Council voted to approve a nearly $300 million construction project for the new Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School. 

Unlike in Diman's sending communities of Somerset, Swansea and Westport, where paying for their portion of the school was on town ballots, the council side-stepped putting the project before city voters, although it was an option. 

About 75% of Diman's student population lives in Fall River. 

Now the hard financial realities are percolating to the surface regarding how much Fall River’s portion of a new Diman will be in the coming years, and Mayor Paul Coogan wants to place a question on November’s ballot asking voters to decide whether the project should be paid for through a debt exclusion.

Read more from Jo C. Goode at heraldnews.com.