Star-Journbal Editor
And the answer is — Yes!
Voters agreed by a margin of 465 to 404 votes Tuesday to USD 410's request for $6.625 million in property taxpayers' money for school facility expansions and upgrades.
Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at two locations in Hillsboro. A one-vote majority was needed for the question to pass.
Board president Rod Koons went into Tuesday's vote confident that the district had answered enough hard questions over the past few months to convince a simple majority of voters to vote "yes."
"We're excited that voters showed a commitment to progress and to education in the Hillsboro community," Koons said. "That's what this is about."
With the "Yes" vote, the following projects will become a reality, hopefully within the next three years:
— School expansion, traffic flow and parking lot improvements at Hillsboro Elementary School ($1.69 million).
— A remodeled chemistry and biology classroom, new dressing rooms, new weight training facility, and parking lot improvements at Hillsboro High School ($2.44 million).
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— Enhancement of football and track facilities at Reimer Field in a joint effort between USD 410 and Tabor College ($2.16 million).
— Relocation of the central office, transportation and maintenance facilities to the Hillsboro Business Development Complex (the former AMPI building) ($475,000).
How much will it cost?
At present, 3.165 mills is being assessed for the middle school project. With the referendum's approval, taxpayers will see a net increase of 2.335 mills in 2007-08, to a total of 5.5 mills.
Within three years, the 2.335 mills will raise to 4.835 mills, to a total maximum of 8.0 mills.
Residential and commercial properties will be taxed based on assessed value; farm land will be taxed based on ag-use value.
Koons said the $6.625 million would buy $8.64 million in improvements, due to the fact that Tabor College is raising more than $2 million for its share of the Reimer Field improvements.
In addition, state funds will provide 31 percent of the $6.625 million. All tolled, taxpayers will pay $4.57 million for an $8.64 project.
According to USD 410 superintendent Gordon Mohn, the next step in the process will be for the board to take action at Monday's regular meeting to begin to put together bid requests for the sale of the bonds. Concurrently, the board's architect will complete the project designs to put them out for bid.
Also, the board must decide which type of management the projects will have, Mohn added.
"Design, bid, and build is the typical way, with whoever is the low general contractor in charge of overseeing the projects," he said.
"Another type of management, called construction manager at risk, is the newer concept the board will consider on Monday."
A construction manager could be hired and begin working within 30-45 days. A design, bid, and build contractor would be named after winning the bid, in September or October, Mohn said.
Mohn said the board will ask contractors to bid on all four of the projects as one super project, to make it worthwhile for larger companies.
"Although six million is a lot of money for some contractors, breaking it into four pieces isn't that big of a project," Mohn said. "It would be better to bring them here with one substantial project."
Also yet to be answered is how much work will be required to clean up the fire damage at the former AMPI building, and how soon it can be done.
As of last week, the Hillsboro City Council had received two cleanup bids of $440,000 and about $200,000, with more bids yet to come.
"The city feels confident we're going to get in there," Mohn said.
The Reimer Field project would begin soon after the last football game this coming season, around Nov. 1, Mohn said.
"That's probably pretty close to when some of the others would begin as well," he added.
The district will have three years to complete the project, but could apply for extensions, if needed.
While Mohn believes the project can be done in three years, he added that it could take at least that long.
"It will kind of fall in place piece by piece, and it's sometimes painfully slow," he said.
The one project that must come together as drawn in the play book is the sports complex, Mohn said.
"The main reason why is we've got seasons to mesh up with," he said. "We'd hope, in a perfect world, that we'd be able to play football there in the fall of 2008.
"But we've got our bases covered, just in case we can't."
If the stadium isn't ready by fall, 2008, Mohn said, Tabor College and Hillsboro High School might play their home games at Marion High School, Goessel High School, or Bethel College.
Despite boos from non-sports fans who felt the bond question was overloaded with athletic projects, Koons says teamwork is the reason why the renovation of Reimer Field has become his favorite project.
"The more I've thought about it, that's the most exciting part to myself personally of the four facets," he said. "It's not that we're building a football facility, but it's that we're building a partnership [between USD 410 and Tabor College]. If we can make this work, we can be a positive example to other communities."
[Mohn, who is retiring as of June 30, says the projects won't be won't be slowed by his departure. A new interim superintendent is expected to be named at Monday's meeting. See Story, Pg. 1].
