Vol. 169, No. 8 • CLINTON, NEW YORK • September 2, 2015
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KIRKLAND IN FOR Campus Will be Ready for First Day, CCS Officials Say ‘DIFFICULT TIMES’ WITH BUDGET T Written and Photographed by John Howard
By Staff
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own of Kirkland officials have begun the process of discussing the 2016 spending plan, which will come with new challenges. Faced with plummeting tax revenues, restrictions in property taxes imposed by the state, and a depleted fund balance as the result of the flood response, Town Supervisor Robert Meelan and Town Budget Director Anthony Arcuri are taking a hard look at each line in the Town’s budget for places to cut back. “We’re going to be in a little bit of difficult times this year,” Meelan said during a Town Board meeting last week. “We’re going to try and cut back on every single department.” Meelan and Arcuri have begun meeting with the heads of the Town’s various departments to discuss ways in which current services can be conserved. Still up in the air is how much funding the Town will receive in a renewed Municipal Contributions Agreement (MCA) with Hamilton College. Negotiations are ongoing, but Meelan has said he is hoping the College could offer more or that Oneida County could free up some of its appropriation percentage in the MCA to go toward supporting Kirkland. A saving grace in the upcoming budget process might come from within the Kirkland Police Department where a string of recent retirements of long-time officers might free up some of its salary costs. “I’m tired of asking for money, so we have to change the way we do business,” said Meelan. “We were pretty close to broke when I came into office and I don’t want to leave it broke.” Meelan will run for re-election this November. He is unopposed.
he Clinton Elementary School was able to avoid a major scheduling headache that would have been caused by having an unusable cafeteria. H.R. Beebe’s James Fawcett, the project director overseeing summer construction at Clinton Central School, presented the situation during a Board of Education meeting last month. Asbestos floor tiles in the Elementary School cafeteria were abated, but installing a new surface had proved to be “an unexpected challenge.” “Once that tile was removed, it was discovered that there was what they called an asphaltic [layer] underneath," said Fawcett. “The installer of the new sheet flooring has a concern installing the new flooring over the underlayment.” Presented with two options, the Board decided to move forward with a more expensive and more timeconsuming solution, which would guarantee a warranty on the new flooring being installed. But with summer coming to a close, the concern with this direction was with the
Workers pour a new concrete layer on the floor of the Clinton Elementary School cafeteria. project’s extended timeline. As tentative plans were put in place for in-classroom lunchtime, subcontractor schedules were able to line up and crews got to work. The asphaltic layer was removed and a new concrete layer was poured last week. This week, installation of the
new floor surface is commencing. According to the District’s Assistant Superintendent for Business Joseph Barretta, the work added about $30,000 onto the overall capital project’s cost. Most of the scheduled work is still CONSTRUCTION, page 6
New Kickwall Painted by Girls Soccer Team Written and Photographed by Mark Warren
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s fall approaches, a new soccer season is right around the corner. The Clinton girls soccer team finished 15-3 last season, while going undefeated in league games. This year, the squad has been assigned the task of keeping pace in CSC I. With a slew of incoming freshman joining the team, head coach Beth Baker had her team come together to paint Clinton Central School’s newly constructed kickwall on Aug. 31. During the last week of July, several workers in the CCS’s summer student worker program built the new kickwall by hand. The old one, which stood next to the campus softball field, was removed and the new one KICKWALL, page 15 Members of the Clinton girls varsity soccer team paint CCS’s newly-built kickwall.
Teachers Start School Early With New Plan Written and Photographed by John Howard
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ast week, a crop of new Clinton Central School educators cut their summer vacation short to head to campus where they were greeted by a revamped strategy for professional development. Eleven new faculty members will join CCS this school year, both full-time teachers and long-term substitutes. Last year, the District added six new teachers. With a higher-than-usual amount of retirements and new hires in recent years, attracting new talent and retaining that talent has become more important than ever. The District’s solution is a five-year development plan called Clinton CARES (coaching and retaining educators for success). Approved earlier this summer by the Board of Education, Clinton TEACHERS, page 6
New CCS faculty members listen to a technology presentation in the campus media center on Tuesday, Aug. 26.