Pole Buildings Ohio

School building deal no cure-all for Monroe Co.

Changes and delays in the Switzerland of Ohio school district's state-assisted building and renovation project are being pointed to by opponents as reasons to vote against the Warren Local bond issue.

The renovation of River High School and construction of a new Hannibal/Sardis Elementary School were combined into a single project in January after it was learned the projects would be a combined $1.1 million over budget. But claims that the Monroe County district has used up all of its contingency funding before the first of six buildings was completed are not true, state and local officials said.

"We haven't run out of money. It's just that costs are more than we anticipated," said Marc Ring, director of support services for the district.

In May 2009, district residents approved a 7.69-mill bond issue and 0.5-mill tax levy to fund the 37.5 percent local share of the $88 million project. The Ohio School Facilities Commission is providing the rest of the funding and oversees the process.

At that time, state officials had ranked Switzerland's facilities the worst among Ohio's 612 school districts.

Warren's 8.76-mill bond issue and levy would raise the 42 percent local share of a $74.6 million project to build three new elementary schools and a new high school/middle school complex. It will be on the ballot Tuesday, the fourth time it has been put before voters.

The original plan in Switzerland was to build six new school buildings and renovate the existing River High School. But in an effort to address some higher-than-expected costs, the new Hannibal/Sardis Elementary is being attached to the renovated school, making it the second K-12 building in the district.

"We found out that there's tremendous economies by doing that," Ring said. "All in all, I think we're getting terrific buildings."

Steve Berezansky, chief of projects for the Ohio School Facilities Commission, said there are a variety of factors influencing the costs, including rising material prices, land costs and the number of contractors bidding on a project.

The K-12 Beallsville school is almost completely under roof, Switzerland Assistant Superintendent George Richardson said.

The projects are generally about six months behind, Ring said, due in large part to "value engineering" - efforts to save money.

"They are being very frugal and making sure they don't have to come back to their taxpayers for money to complete this project," said Rick Savors, chief of media relations for the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

Pole Buildings Sandusky Bay: Outlook for Tiffin, Bellevue ...

Numerous requests are coming in for pole buildings.  Not quite sure where the demand is coming from..if i had to speculate I would say the city of Columbus has insulated quite a few counties like Marion, Morrow, Delaware, Franklin, Crawford, Richland, Wyandot, Seneca from the meltdown that other counties have faced.  The workforce and jobs in Columbus cover all of these counties.  The employees of numerous companies in greater Columbus support these surrounding counties with money that people can afford quality pole buildings.  In my humble opinion and analysis I postulate that Columbus has been the economic engine that has kept central and north central ohio in stable territory during these tough economic times.  Good for building companies.

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