Board rejects offer to split heating costs

The building closed when pupils moved to the new junior-senior high school.
By VIRGINIA ROSS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The New Castle School Board has turned down an area agency's offer to split the cost of the heating bills at the Ben Franklin Junior High School building.
The Lawrence County Community Action Partnership has been trying to determine if any damage has resulted at the structure since the school district shut down utilities there earlier this winter.
At a work session Monday, district solicitor Charles Sapienza said Tom Scott, chief executive officer of LCCAP, informed him the agency is interested in buying the site but is concerned about the building's condition, specifically its heating system and plumbing.
"He's concerned about what they might find once the utilities are turned back on," Sapienza said. "He's also worried about mold and mildew. The agency wants to have the utilities turned back on so they can send people in to check out the situation there, to check out the condition of the building and make sure there is no damage there in case they decide to buy it."
No formal proposal made
Sapienza said the agency has not made a formal sales proposal. School officials said the district paid $6,400 to heat the building in November.
"And that was keeping the temperature at 50 degrees," said Joseph Ambrosini, district business manager. "It just didn't make sense to spend that much money to heat a building we're not using."
Scott informed the school district his agency would be willing to pay half of the heating bills through the remainder of winter, up to $3,000 a month, if the district were to have the utilities turned back on.
School officials, noting the district would likely be strapped with reconnection fees, said they were reluctant to enter into the agreement. Ambrosini said the building was winterized before the utilities were turned off.
The building has been empty since the district moved the seventh- and eighth-graders to the new junior-senior high on Lincoln Avenue.