Thursday November 17, 2016 Vol. 4, No. 37
The Weekly Post
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Princeville makes plans for new school tax revenue By BILL KNIGHT
PRINCEVILLE – The Board of Education at its Nov. 8 meeting approved a resolution declaring the intention to issue Working Cash Fund Bonds for the purpose of increasing the District’s Working Cash Fund. The Board also discussed how to use the County Facility Sales Tax that voters approved Nov. 8. The 1/2 percent increase in sales taxes on qualified purchases is estimated to generate about $240,000 annually for the For The Weekly Post
District, and the plan is to use half of the new revenue to lower property taxes. Superintendent Shannon Duling said that should drop the tax rate by about 13 cents. Duling said the district plans to use the other half of the new tax revenues to finance work on the bus lane and parking issues at the grade school, the track, and parking at the Junior Senior High School “Working Cash bonds would not affect the District’s current debt limits as they are not included in the overall long-term
debt category and do not impact the District’s bonding capacity,” Duling said. “Working Cash bonds would likely provide lower interest rates than other types of financing. “Paying back the bonds would require no property tax increase as the bond payments would be made using revenue from the County Facility Sales Tax,” he continued. “Issuing Working Cash bonds would likely lower the payback period (due to the lower interest rates), saving the District and taxpayers more money.”
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Elmwood fire district eyeing new firehouse
VETERANS DAY 2016
Actions of Vets louder than words
While chatting at halftime of Farmington’s final football game of 2016, Dave Giagnoni voiced a common lament. “I wish more people would attend Veterans Day ceremonies,” he said. Giagnoni, that gifted recorder of all things Farmington, had one day earlier snapped pictures at a Veterans Day service that drew a much smaller crowd than the playoff football Jeff game. LAMPE So it goes, unfortunately. Services on work days tend to create conflicts with other commitments (as I can attest). Often there is a quiet sameness to many Veterans memorial services that fails to excite like a football game.
In other action, the Board approved a Request for Proposals for HVAC work at the Junior/Senior High School for a cost not to exceed $10,420. The District’s cost will be $2,920, Duling said. Also, the District plans to order two door-monitoring stations, one for the daycare room at the Grade School and the daycare room in the basement of the Unit Office/Pre-K/Daycare Facility. “At Princeville Grade School and the Unit Office, there is no one to buzz open
By BILL KNIGHT
ELMWOOD – Trustees from the Elmwood Rural Fire Protection District (ERFPD) on Monday unanimously approved a 2016 tax levy that equalizes taxes between rural and city residents by cutting taxes within the city limits and raising them in the district outside town. The vote occurred after a 15-minute public hearing and before a regular meeting that discussed a proposed firehouse that would accommodate the fire department and B.Y.E. Ambulance. The tax adjustment was necessary after voters in March authorized ERFPD Trustees Jay McKinty, Thomas Shissler and Dave Wagner to annex the City into the District. “The City no longer has the authority to levy taxes for fire protection,” said attorney Bob Potts, who represents the ERFPD and the City. “Now there’ll be one blanket levy for the City and the District, spread evenly – at the same rate. And there’ll be one contract with the fire department and one contract for B.Y.E. For The Weekly Post
The late Wilson Reinhart of Brimfield signed his name on this Japanese flag that is displayed in a war museum at The Villages, a central Florida retirement community. Photo by Richard Coon.
None of which are valid excuses for failing to recognize the contributions of veterans. But there’s another factor at work here, it seems to me. Call it the case of the quiet veteran. Some veterans say little about their service because they don’t want to relive the horrors they experienced. Others are quiet because they never witnessed those horrors firsthand and feel, wrongly, as if they don’t measure up to societal expectations of “war he-
roes.” My grandfather, Elwood, made little mention of World War II memories until the last few years of his life. I remember asking him, as a kid, “Do you have any cool war stories, grandpa?” I had seen heroics on TV and in films and expected he would paint a similar picture. I was wrong. Grandpa’s exact words escape me, but they went along the Continued on Page 10
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