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Cortland voters to be asked for additional money for schools, police
By Ed Runyan
CORTLAND
With the 4.55-mill, 37-year bond issue for Lakeview Schools failing at the polls last November by only 106 votes, school officials decided to try it again in the May 5 election.
“It was so close, and we are not sure we did a good enough job of explaining it the last time,” said schools Superintendent Bob Wilson.
A big reason officials want to demolish the existing elementary and middle schools and replace them with a combined building is the “two aging buildings” that would be replaced. There are old, inefficient windows in both buildings and uneven heating in the elementary school. There were two floods in the middle school gymnasium, Wilson said.
The elementary school in Bazetta Township is 87 years old, though it received an addition a decade or so ago; the middle school was built in 1978.
Both buildings have fared poorly when evaluated by the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission, Wilson said.
The bond issue would also cover upgrades to the district’s athletic facilities to bring them up to standards required by the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The bond issue would raise $23,815,000 for the construction project; a state-required 0.5-mill continuing permanent improvement levy would raise another $131,705.
The bond issue would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $159.25 per year, and the levy would cost another $17.50 per year. An existing levy that is paying for earlier renovations will expire in 2020, Wilson noted.
If voters approve the bond issue, the state will pay $9.4 million of the project cost, but this August is the deadline to use the money or lose it, Wilson said. There would be the possibility to ask voters again at a special election in August, but the general election in November would be too late.
Meanwhile the Cortland Police Department is seeking approval of a 1.5-mill, continuing additional levy for police protection.
It would raise $198,360 annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $52.50 per year.
Cortland Police Chief Thomas Andrews did not return multiple messages seeking comment on the reasons for the levy and information on how much his police officers earn per year.