Time line has council, Harding preservation committee at odds

The construction manager says Harding can be razed in phases, but it will cost more money.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Committee members named by the board of education to make a recommendation by March 18 about the fate of Warren G. Harding High School says it doesn’t have enough time to do so.

Meeting for the first time Monday, members of the Harding Historic Respect Committee agreed to ask the school board for 90 to 100 days to do their job.

The school will close at the end of the current school year and a new school adjacent to Harding will open in the fall.

The district has $946,510 available from a 2003 bond issue to preserve an unspecified section of the school. The issue raised $1 million, but $53,490 has been spent on architectural fees.

“Your challenge is to move forward with the best options,” said board member Shari Harrell, who named the committee along with board member Edward Bolino.

“I don’t think I can made a decision by the 18th [of March], said committee member Atty. John Pogue, noting that if the board doesn’t extend the time, he won’t serve on the committee.

Anthony Payiavlas, a businessman named committee chairman, said meeting the time line is unreasonable and “in some degree disrespectful” by the school board to committee members.

Donald Ford, a committee member and retired judge of the 11th District Court of Appeals, called the task impossible in two weeks.

Judge Ford said it’s “not inappropriate” for the committee to ask the school board for more time to make its recommendations.

Bill Schurman of Carbone-Ozanne-Hammond Management Team of Canton, senior manager of the project, said the cost of saving Harding’s facade columns will cost $753,000 and $5,084,000 to retain the facade, rehabilitate the auditorium and build additional space behind the auditorium stage.

These are estimates calculated in 2004, but the costs will have increased now by 25 percent.

Harrell suggested the committee might want to look at recommending that Harding be razed in phases to make way for constructing roads for the new building.

But Schurman pointed out that this will cost more money that will have to be generated locally because the Ohio School Facilities Commission is paying for 81 percent of the construction of the new school and nothing for preservation.

Bolino said that he won’t get involved in any fund-raising program for preservation and that the board should stay within in $946,510 budget.

“What are we going to use it for,” Bolino said of the auditorium, noting it was rented only four times in 2007.

“Once the building comes down, it’s down for good,” Payiavlas commented, however.

Committee member Tom Klingeman said he wants to stay within the school district’s budget, but wouldn’t be opposed to fundraising.

Another committee member, Collette Parker, said the opinion of students should be taken into consideration with them serving on the committee.

Harrell said she and Bolino will add students or recent graduates to the committee, which will meet again at 4 p.m. Monday. A location hasn’t been determined.

yovich@vindy.com