Haverling revises capital project proposal
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - Haverling school district officials last week trimmed $1.5 million from a capital project voters rejected last month. The revised building project will go up for a district-wide vote either in March or June, according to district Superintendent Marion Tunney.

Board members agreed on a new $16.5 million capital project after school administrators and representatives from Hunt engineers returned to the drawing board to review a $18 million building project voters rejected 421-353.

Gone from the retooled building proposal are numerous items, including:

• A $50,000 proposal to purchase property near the soccer fields to create extra parking space

• A $300,000 reconfiguration of locker room space in the VEW primary school to create additional classrooms

• A $192,000 upgrade of corridors in the Middle School

• Expansion of the high school cafeteria

• Additional parking at the bus garage

Tunney Thursday said the school district's business office will review the expected tax impact of the less expensive project and the district will release those figures at a later date. She added district officials want to avoid a project vote in April or May, the period when the district will be presenting its annual budget plan to the public.

A June vote, if possible, would wrap up the initial phase of the capital project in the 2007-2008 budget year, she noted. School district officials also dropped a separate proposal to add artificial turf to the football field, a proposition that would have added $1 million to the original $18 million project. District residents, she said, offered to initiate a fundraising effort to come up with the $77,000 local share; however, Tunney said they would have to raise the total amount by the end of January in order to coordinate their effort with planning aspects of the larger project.

While school officials are not ready to release the tax impact of the revised building project, Tunney noted the original $18 million project would have had no tax impact for a senior citizen owning a $50,000 property covered by the full STAR exemption.

The $18 million project would have added $1 to the annual tax bill for a $50,000 property covered by the basic STAR exemption.