By Josh Sigler
Wabash City Schools held a public preliminary determination hearing Monday night to unveil its plan for building projects that it plans to undertake in the near future.
Superintendent Jason Callahan explained that there were three total projects, including an expansion of the L.H. Carpenter Center, a high school-middle school connection project which will include upgrades to Coolman Gymnasium and Alumni Field, as well as maintenance projects throughout the district.
Brian Bolander of Barton Coe Vilamaa was on hand to explain the projects.
At L.H. Carpenter, the plan calls for the addition of restrooms, the opening of the second deck of the multi-purpose room, the relocation of the main office, the addition of eight classrooms which will allow the district to shift its kindergarten classes over to the center, and the addition of some parking.
The hope is that by winter of 2019, the bids for construction on the L.H. Carpenter project will be awarded, with a breaking ground date in the spring of 2020.
The plan for the high school and middle school is to connect the two buildings with a construction project.
That will require the creation of a hallway, or corridor, to connect the two, and the reconstruction of some restrooms. It will allow safe inside passage by students in personnel from one building to another.
At Coolman Gym, the addition of locker rooms and a second balcony deck will mirror what’s already on the other side of the gymnasium.
In addition, the district plans to install turf at Alumni Field, expand the track and field facility to eight lanes, reconstruct the bleachers and make both the bleachers and restroom facilities ADA compliant.
The district hopes to award bids for that project in the winter of 2019, with a spring 2020 date targeted for ground breaking.
Bids for maintenance projects such as asphalt resurfacing, tuck pointing and roof work are also going out.
Jim Elisando of Stifel was on hand to talk about the financial aspects of the projects.
The high school-middle school project would have hard and soft construction costs of $9.78 million, with an issuance of bond cost of $120,000, meaning the total project would run about $9.9 million.
The L.H. Carpenter project would carry a $7.5 million cost for construction, an issuance of bond cost of $99,000, and a capitalized interest amount of $146,000, giving that project a total cost of around $7.745 million.
Maintenance projects would total a cost of $875,000.
Elisando pointed out that none of the projects would create an increase to the debt service tax rate due to old debt rolling off as the repayment of bonds happened.
Graphs displayed at Monday night’s meeting had the debt for the projects being paid off by 2040.
The meeting was supposed to be a public hearing, but the district received no public input from those in attendance. The public was given the opportunity to speak.
The school board will consider resolutions regarding the projects at its June 3 meeting at City Hall at 6 p.m.