By Josh Sigler
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – The Metropolitan School District of Wabash County’s board of education touched on an array of subjects at its Tuesday night, May 22 meeting.
Prior to the start of the meeting, board members met with Darren Bates of Data Pit Stop to get a glimpse into what the tax ramifications might be should MSD ever consolidate with Wabash City Schools.
Bates informed the board that the net assessed value of the property in the MSD school district is over $775 million, while those properties in the Wabash City Schools district had a cumulative net assessed value of over $204 million.
“So the taxable value is $979 million of the assessed value, which means MSD accounts for 79 percent of the taxes,” Bates said. “You have more people to pull from. Nearly 80 percent of the money from the bigger base, the bigger area.”
So, what would that mean for people’s tax bills?
“There, you get into what-ifs,” Bates said. “Let’s say $100. $80 of that would come from MSD taxpayers, and $20 would come from people of the Wabash City School system. It’s not necessarily people’s taxes going up, it’s where the money is coming from.”
The MSD board also signed off on the go ahead for IDEM to secure the permit for work to be done on the wastewater treatment plants at Southwood Junior-Senior High School and Southwood Elementary School.
“Once they approve that permit, then we can continue on with the process as far as the bid process,” Superintendent Mike Keaffaber said. “
Here is Superintendent Mike Keaffaber with more:
The project, according to Keith Bryant, Vice President of United Consulting, would cost about $800,000.
The project calls for consolidating the two wastewater treatment plants, abandoning the wastewater plant at the elementary school, then pumping that flow over the the high school plant.
Upgrades are then in order for the high school plant to meet NPDES permit requirements.
“It’s a permit that allows you to discharge from the wastewater plant,” Bryant said.
Bryant expects bids for the project to be let in August.
The board also tabled a recommendation to approve a letter of intent for solar panel testing after a lengthy discussion over concerns of how much money the project would actually save the school district.