North Fork bond issue back on March 19 primary ballot to build middle school, auditorium
Dave WeidigUTICA – For the second time, North Fork Local School District residents will vote March 19 on a bond issue to fund a new Utica Middle School and auditorium.
Voters will decide whether to approve a 7.1-mill, 37-year, $58 million issue after rejecting a 6.8-mill issue 56% to 44% (1,908 against, 1,489 for) in November.
According to the ballot, the 7.1 mills will amount to $249 per year for each $100,000 of the country's appraised value, or $20.75 per month. However, the 2.2-mill, 25-year bond issue passed in 2000, used to build the high school and elementary schools, would drop off in 2025, leaving the additional millage at 5.3 instead of 7.1. With the millage dropping off, it would be $185 per year, or $15.46 per month.
And homeowners 65 and older would get an additional break, paying $139 per year or $11.60 monthly according to tables provided by the school district, which listed figures for homes ranging from $70,000 to $270,000. Those numbers are available from the district.
North Fork held an open house March 1 at the high school to better explain not only the need for a new middle school but also the need to do it now because of increasing costs. Much like last year, a tour of the current middle school was given.
"If we don't do it now, costs will go up $1 million a year, which could mean we not only might not be able to build a new school but to do all the other things we want to do," Superintendent Scott Hartley said.
The levy would provide money for not only a new middle school and auditorium but also additional facilities. Everything would be on the site of the current high school-middle school campus. Hartley said the first part of the middle school was built in 1957, a lot of it with asbestos, and the rest was added in 1965.
A committee of 30 from the Utica community put the proposal together.
The old middle school would be torn down, and the new school, with an auditorium, would be built in front of the old one. Another facility, with a gymnasium, Industrial Arts, Vo-Ag and workout area, would be constructed back towards the football field. The new setup would also free up more parking.
In a second phase of construction, the current varsity gym would be remodeled and converted to the middle school gym. Both that gym and the new varsity one would have new locker rooms, the latter of which would open out to the football field.
In the middle school gym, the ceiling continues to flake paint onto the floor. The antiquated boiler room has seen flooding that reached all the way up to the pipes and covered the electrical circuit board. The FFA and Industrial Arts rooms are small and outdated, according to district officials.
The media center, shared by the high school and middle school, needs its carpet pulled up and replaced. The room powering technology is marked by a conglomeration of wires, the district said. The area around the main office has security issues, and the cramped office of head of maintenance Adam Reynolds is a former kitchen.
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