SOUTH POINT – With just a little over two weeks to go before a special levy election, South Point volunteers are rallying to better inform residents on the proposed 4.

Saturday, July 22, 2000

SOUTH POINT – With just a little over two weeks to go before a special levy election, South Point volunteers are rallying to better inform residents on the proposed 4.99-mill bond levy that could bring new schools to the district.

The special election, voters’ last chance to pass the measure, will be Aug. 8 from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The South Point Board of Education filed for a special election in May after voters rejected the levy for the second time.

If the levy passes this time, it will provide the local matching funds needed to receive the Ohio School Facilities Commission funding to build a new high school and consolidated elementary school in the district and to renovate the current high school into a middle school.

"The board voted to go for the bond levy one more time," said Gary Morrison, South Point Board of Education member. "Community volunteers have been going from door to door to update residents on many of the issues we did not have answers to during the previous elections."

He said a research committee has been working to get answers to the questions voters asked about the project – and the levy.

"We have had enough time to get the right information voters have been in question about for some time now," Morrison said. "The cost of maintenance is continually getting more expensive and if we don’t get this levy passed, the commission is going to pass us by and then we won’t have any state funding available."

Three of the four buildings in the South Point School District are nearly 50 years old. The state will not help finance the more than $14 million needed to renovate those buildings, he added.

"Two years ago, the state estimated that it would cost over $14 million to renovate the buildings," he said. "The state just will not provide funding to make those needed repairs."

Passing the levy now means the district will not only have the money it needs, but residents will not have to bear the full cost of upgrading the schools. That means, in the long run, the levy will save residents’ money, Morrison said.

"People don’t realize that if this tax levy passes, it will be a fixed amount – meaning it never grows," he said. "And as more people come to the community, the amount of tax each person pays will actually decrease."

In addition to the possibility of future tax cuts, the state will allow the district to sell the property on which the current schools are located. That means more money can go to reducing the tax burden for taxpayers.

"We will not have any use for the property if we can build the new schools on the 260 acres we are looking at," Morrison said. "The state will allow us to sell these properties and apply the money toward the tax, which will greatly reduce the tax itself. We didn’t have that opportunity in 1981 when we built the high school."

The board could feasibly have the buildings sold "the day" the district moves out, he added.

"There’s no reason we can’t have the buildings sold before the tax ever kicks in if that’s what the board decides to do," he said. "The actual tax will not take affect, if it’s passed, until the money begins getting used. And that won’t be for another four or five years. Taxes will be much higher if this levy doesn’t pass because the state will then force us to renovate the schools. They may actually make us consolidate schools, which would cause us to lose academic programs."