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Business Spotlight School Bond Election The Harrisburg School Board voted 5-0 to hold a bond election on October 7, from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. The voting will take place at Harrisburg North Middle School in Sioux Falls and at Liberty Elementary in Harrisburg. Absentee ballots start on September 25 at all eight Harrisburg School Buildings. The bond issue amount is $25 million. The majority of the bond money will be used to construct a new elementary school and an addition on to the present high school. Both are in this bond due to the fact Journey Elementary and the High School will be either at or beyond capacity within the next two years. Presently there are 725 students in the high school. The building was built to hold 800. Next year, if no new students were to move in or move out of the district, the high school will have 829 students when the 8th graders move into the freshman class and the seniors graduate. Every year the high school population will grow as larger classes continue to move up through the system. The bottom four grades (K-3) in Harrisburg currently have 1467 students compared to the 725 students in the upper four grades. The proposed bond issue’s additions to the high school will accommodate 500 more students. Journey this year has 494 students enrolled. The building’s capacity is 550 students. It is expected Journey will be near that number in the fall of 2015. The new proposed elementary school will also hold around 550 students. Much of the design of the new elementary will copy our other newer schools in order to save money on design costs. In order to have the elementary and HS addition ready for occupancy at the same time the other buildings are at capacity, construction will need to start this fall and this upcoming spring. With this timeline, it is expected some HS classrooms will be ready by the fall of 2015 with the rest being completed by the fall of 2016. The new elementary school would be ready by the fall of 2016. In addition to the elementary school and high school additions, the bond issuance will pay for expansions to the athletic facilities around the high school, garage parking, and additional outside parking. Eight tennis courts will be constructed, as Harrisburg will join the rest of the State’s AA schools in having tennis as a school sanctioned sport. The parking lot expansion will include 430 more parking spaces to accommodate the need both during the school day as well as for activities. A central receiving building will be constructed at the high school for which all of the district’s supplies and equipment will be inventoried and dispersed. The school board has been able to pass bonds over the last seven years with the promise that they will not result in raised taxes. This proposed bond also will not result in higher tax levies from the school. The total taxable valuation of the school district grew by approximately $175,000,000 this last year alone. With the increase in student numbers, we also see an increase in rooftops and businesses. This large amount of increase is the reason that taxes do not go up due to new school construction. In a nutshell, the school district needs to add additional space for its increasing student numbers while not needing to raise taxes due to the increase in overall tax valuation in the district. See Page 5 for Polling Location Information.
Mary’s Kitchen and Gardens 28702 471st Ave Beresford SD 57004 605-366-3479 www.maryskitchenandgardens.com Email: maryskitchenandgardens@gmail.com Owner: Lee and Mary Storo Business Hours: Seasonal - Farmers Market in Harrisburg Wednesdays, 3-7 How many employees do you have?: 2 When was your business established?: 2008 What are three key points you want people to know about your business?: • We provide farm fresh, chemical free produce raised according to organic principles on a weekly basis throughout the seasons in Harrisburg, Beresford and Sioux Falls locations mid June-October. • We grow a wide variety of vegetables from arugula to zucchini as well as pumpkins and ornamental items. We also provide a variety of baked goods and canned goods at our weekly farmers markets as well as special orders upon request. We also sell farm fresh eggs provided by free range Chickens on our farm. • We offer a Community Supported Agriculture ( CSA) program. Our shareholders would receive a weekly offering of farm fresh produce throughout the season (approximately 15 weeks). This is a great way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from the farmer. Because we are your farmer you know who grows your food and where it is grown. You can have your weekly produce delivered directly to your door or also pick up from the farm or any of our farmers market locations. Sign up at www.maryskitchenandgardens.com or contact us directly at maryskitchenandgardens@gmail.com for additional information or questions. What are some areas of specialty?: We are committed to providing our customers with farm fresh, chemical-free, produce. We are continually researching new ways to extend our growing season and offer our produce earlier and later into the season. Farm fresh produce is not comparable to the produce you purchase at the supermarket, and is a better value as you will receive same day picked produce from our gardens versus produce that is shipped from other locations across the country. One bite will sell you on local produce!! Additional information about your business: We are always excited to meet with customers and tell them about our products, our farm and us. We want our customers to trust us to grow their food and we want to be your farmer too! We want to also encourage people to buy fresh buy local.
THE TIGER TIMES • OCTOBER 2014 • PAGE 1