Lake Park, Iowa — The Harris-Lake Park School Board now has a third option for updating their facilities.
When they met in February, they were astonished to learn that according to the estimates they received, it would cost more to renovate their facilities than it would to build a new facility attached to the current middle/high school building. Not only that, but the costs of both options were higher than they expected.
Superintendent Les Douma says they had hoped to be able to have an option that provided everything for one price, and then an option that did less, for less money so that it would be easy to present to the public and easier to choose.
This week they reviewed a third, lower-cost option for the possible facilities project. Douma says it would involve a scaled-back renovation of the elementary building…
He says it would address the safety issue of the entrance, the HVAC, and the roof, but that’s about it, and he says the bond referendum would be for $2.70 per thousand. The estimate for option “3” is nearly $11 million.
The district’s bonding capacity, according to Douma is $4.08 per thousand, which would generate about $18.1 million.
Douma says the board now wants to hear from the public. He says they will be holding public informational meetings. One will be Wednesday, April 5th, at the Community Center in Harris from 6:30-9:00 p.m. Other meetings will be April 11th and April 13th at 10:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the auditorium of the Middle School-High School in Lake Park.
Douma says hopefully at the April 17th board meeting, they can make a decision. He says they will need to make a decision at the April board meeting if they hope to have a bond referendum vote on September 12th.
