Tunney: No tax impact from building project
Vote set for March 19
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - Residents of the Haverling school district will return to the polls in March to vote on a capital building project approved earlier this month by the school district's board of education.

School board members last week scheduled a public vote on the $16.5 million project for March 19 after trimming $1.5 million from an earlier version of the project voters rejected in December 2007.

"We wanted to get to it as quickly as possible, so we could get the wheels in motion," Tunney said. "If the vote is positive, there's still a lot of work to be done."

Tunney said the revised project will have no impact on the local school tax levy because school board members eliminated items from the earlier capital project that had not qualified for state building aid. A combination of building aid and state EXCEL funds will cover the total cost of the revised project, she said.

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

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 offered to initiate a fundraising effort to come up with the $77,000 local share; however, Tunney noted they would have to raise the total amount by the end of January in order to coordinate the effort with planning aspects of the larger project.