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Thursday, May 22, 2014
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BV’s finances looking up Parent questions protocol By Goldie Currie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
MANLIUS — Drastic improvements have been made to the Bureau Valley School District’s budget within the last year. It was once an uncertainty of whether or not BV would be able to pay its bills two years in the
future. In 2012, the board was forced to sell nearly $3 million in bonds and began figuring how they could make the money last three years into the future, which is when they would be able to sell more bonds to fulfill the financial needs. Deep cuts were made during the last year, such as reducing the special
education program, getting rid of the industrial arts and home economics classes, phasing out the German language program and making changes to the staff insurance coverage. Also, the board found ways to increase their revenue. The biggest changes were the district’s increased equalized assessed valuation and the decision to raise students’ registration and book fees.
With these changes, the board was able to keep from having to dip into the bond money as much as they had projected, and a feeling of relief began to slowly develop throughout the year. At Monday night’s board meeting, Interim Superintendent Dennis Thompson spoke about his satisfaction with the current district budget. He said if things continue to
go as they have, the bond money could last the district four years, and maybe even a little longer than that. While the board had recently anticipated transferring $857,000 to the education fund, Thompson said only $500,000 would have to be transferred to the fund. “That’s huge from my perspective of doing these budgets,” he said.
He said the longer they are able to string out the bond monies, the more time they can give the state a chance to recover. “The point is, in school funding, we’ve taken a big hit with not getting what we expected,” he said. “We’d like to get back to the point where we can count on funding. When we’d get general state aid
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Park district requires permits for golf cart/ four-wheeler use By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — If people want to drive golf carts or four-wheelers in the Princeton parks, they need permission first from the park district. At this week’s meeting, the Princeton Park Board discussed the option and process of giving permission for additional motorized vehicles to be used on park property. There has been a concern about motorized vehicle use in the parks ever since the Zearing Park expansion project, Executive Director Elaine Russell said Tuesday. Driving motorized vehicles in the park started with the Princeton Youth Soccer and Baseball leagues using golf carts and four-wheelers to deliver their equipment to the ball diamonds and fields. This use was agreed upon between these two groups and the park district, Russell said. The problem came when this use was seen by some people in the general public, and they felt it was acceptable to ride such vehicles without permission, Russell said. However, it’s important to understand that to obtain permission the individual owner of the cart(s) must produce insurance coverage that adds the park district as an additional insured party in the event of an accident.
Park District Page 4 Year 168 No. 61 Two Sections - 32 Pages
BCR photo/Goldie Currie
Lim-moooooo-sine! Did you see the world famous cow limo strolling along between Sheffield and Princeton Monday afternoon? The hysterical sight had people stopping in their tracks, giggling and pulling out their cameras to get an everlasting shot of the cow-spotted vehicle. The limo came from Indiana and was rented out by a group of seven women celebrating their 60th birthday this year. They were in the area staying at the Chestnut Street Inn in Sheffield Sunday evening and stopped by Myrtle’s Cafe and Pie Shop in Princeton on their way out of the area. The owner of the limo is Jeff Macke, who once owned a comedy club, but gave it up and decided to take on a new sort of fun. His limo service gets anywhere from 50 to 100 calls a day from people all over the country looking to rent out his limo for their special event. He said even well-known celebrities and comedians have taken a ride in the entertaining limo. For more information about his limo, visit his website at rentcowlimo.com.
PES finances: Still a concern District considers fast-pitch softball club By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Diminishing revenue continues to be a concern for the Princeton Elementary School District. At Monday’s meeting of the Princeton Elementary School Board, Superintendent Tim Smith said the state is current with its categorical payments, though the final payment of the fiscal year isn’t due until the end of June. But even though the state is current with its pay-
ments, the level of funding from the state is quite a bit less than in recent years, through cuts to Hold Harmless, reading improvement funding and the school safety block grant. In those three line items alone, PES funding from the state is diminished by $600,000, Smith said. In a possible revenue-maker, Smith reported on a recent meeting he attended for Bureau County school districts on the topic of asking voters to approve a 1 cent sales tax increase. Presenting the information at the May 7 meeting were representatives of the
Stifel Nicolaus financial firm. The Bureau Valley School District had initiated the conversation on the possible sales tax increase. As explained at the May 7 meeting, the new sales tax money could only be used for building or maintenance purposes, Smith said. There are a lot of exemptions to items impacted by the proposed sales tax, like vehicles, unprepared foods and over-thecounter drugs and vitamins. The proposed sales tax increase would have to be approved county-wide. If such an increase was approved, Princeton Elementary School District could generate an estimated $430,000 in new rev-
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enue each year, Smith said. PES Board President Judd Lusher said it would be nice to have the extra money, but it would be hard to get the tax increase passed county-wide, especially on the eastern side of the county which has building projects already. It would take a lot of work from a lot of people to promote the sales tax increase, he said. On Tuesday, Smith said he would have to do some more study and research into proposal before he could make a determination on where he stands on it.
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