Friday, March 3, 2017
Vol. 93, No.26
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Pineapple Ball PAGE 8 n Afternoon tea PAGE 27
Voters to decide on use of schools capital reserve fund
ADVANCED VISIONS ART
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Two Garden City High School Advanced Placement (AP) art students, Hallie Mallozzi (left) and Sophie Della Penna, had art works selected to this year’s “Advanced Visions” Exhibition at LIU’s CW Post campus. “This year’s exhibition was bigger than ever, hosting 30 schools and over 70 pieces in the exhibition,” shared AP Studio Art teacher Shawn Uttendorfer. “For a show that takes place so early in the exhibition calendar, the work was considerably strong.”
Schools, village explore shared use of fields BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
An all-in and targeted effort to coordinate the uses of Garden City Union Free School District playing fields and scheduling times for the local sports organizations, from the GCAA to Centennials’ soccer and several others, started in February, just as news on the construction of the third and largest Community Park turf playing field makes rounds in the village. In order to make the Parks and Recreation division of
the village’s municipal entity continue sports operations smoothly while various enhancements to municipally-owned facilities carry on, the school field facilities are considered the viable and necessary ‘interim’ ingredient. For the village, the ball figuratively falls in the district’s court complete with a letter of request and ancillary conversations with school administrators and leadership. At the Thursday, February 16 meeting of the village’s Board of Commissioners
of Recreation and Cultural Affairs, Recreation chairman and department head Kevin Ocker asked for input from all Garden City’s intramural sports programs and their necessities for field usage. They obliged, and a bit of fine-tuning on the asking end took place since then. The schools’ administration have not commented publicly as of yet. The subject did not come up for a discussion or action by the Garden City Board of Education at See page 51
For the second straight year the Garden City Union Free School District will be putting the use of its recently-created Capital Reserve Fund in front of the district’s voters for a referendum when the annual budget vote and school board election takes place in May. As several projects were funded by the approval of using a portion of the capital reserve fund last year, those plans are on schedule to start in the summer of 2017. The next phase of district projects that would be paid for without any tax implication, bonding and borrowing (interest) would take shape in Garden City over a period of years ahead, starting with 2018. Money in capital reserve was targeted for a maximum $10 million limit, to be accumulated over eight years. A year ago the first expenditure from it was sought and delivered. At the same time as the 2016-2017 budget’s vote last May 17, the use of $2.3 million out of the schools’ newest reserve account was approved by a margin of 1,342 to 293. On Tuesday night, the request came forward with background. Capital reserve was presented on a slide as “a resource which can be utilized by the school district to fund projects that preserve and enhance its facilities without placing undue additional burdens on the taxpayer.” On the Tuesday May 16 ballots, Garden City’s voting public will be asked to give the district permission to use $6.1 million as an allocation for the following capital projects: at the three lower schools (Locust, Homestead and Hemlock School) HVAC and mechanical work including fresh air intakes and uni-vents; a roof replacement at Homestead; a partial slate roof replacement and HVAC/ mechanical and fresh air intake for Garden City Middle School; HVAC, mechanical, fresh air intakes and masonry at Stewart School; roof replacement, first floor bathroom renovation and masonry work at Stratford School and at Garden City High School, a hot water heater, refinishing (painting) and replacing some classroom doors as well as HVAC work and uni-vents. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen said “there’s a lot of mechanical work to be done” in most Garden City schools, given the ages of the buildings dating back to the 1950s. The uni-vents help to regulate temperature in classrooms and circulate fresh air. He says some classroom doors at GCHS are on their last legs after so many years of use. “We estimate a cost of $6.1 million, and since we had a $10 million limit this pretty much absorbs the rest of that fund. We will ask the community for approval for this if the school board approved and recommends it, and we would begin planning – this would enable us to maintain our buildings, and if we had to do some of this stuff one roof is easily over $1 million. If we had to do it from our operating budget we would not be able to do any (budget year) capital projects and we’d probably have to cut something from academic program to maintain the buildings,” Feirsen said. Feirsen spoke about the district’s planning for investments and See page 51
Garden City wrestlers place in county championships PAGE 51 Recycle your bicycles and sewing machines for charity PAGE 40