LOWELL | Public hearings for three construction projects didn't happen as planned Thursday, but that doesn't mean the Tri-Creek School Corp. projects won't be moving forward.
Assistant Superintendent Ray Cusic told the School Board the award for recovery zone redevelopment funds, or stimulus money, came in Thursday morning from Lake County at less than the $1 million mark that requires a hearing.
The board had asked for a $2.9 million slice of the $15.3 million pie the county had to divvy between nine entities. Tri-Creek received $815,000, Cusic said.
While more would have been better, Cusic said the "cheap money" is appreciated. The board agreed and voted to notify Lake County the district will accept the funds.
The first of the three projects, reroofing Three Creeks Elementary School, is not endangered. "We think we can eke out the Three Creeks roof through the bond issue of '09," Cusic said. The project is expected to cost more than $1 million.
Likewise, the Lowell Middle School sewer project, required to open the new school now under construction in the fall, will get funded. It's estimated price tag also is more than $1 million.
Cusic said he expects the original bond issue for the middle school construction will pay, in part, for the sewer.
Bids for the third project, the Lowell High School athletic complex's physical education/concessions building, were just received and must be reviewed and information verified, Superintendent Alice Neal said.
That project includes not only the building but electrical, plumbing and carpentry work adjacent to the high school. Earlier estimates put the concessions building project around $300,000.
In another matter, the board agreed to buy two 2011, 78-passenger school buses for $73,048 each with a $4,000 trade-in allowance each for two micro-buses.
Director of Operations Nathan Kleefisch said the purchase was to have been four buses, but the district's finances no longer permit that.
Kleefisch recommended, and the board agreed, to added options and a one-time purchase of spare parts making the total cost $182,197 for both buses.
