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FF District projects to cost $2.6M [UPDATED]
Published 11:13am Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Updated 11:14am Tuesday, March 12, 2013Three large maintenance projects are planned at Fergus Falls schools.
Heat pumps will be replaced at Adams and McKinley schools, and electrical supplies will be replaced at Roosevelt and Kennedy schools.
Changes to entrances will be made at McKinley and Adams in order to make the schools safer in case of an intruder.
The cost of all three projects is estimated at $2.6 million.
According to school business manager Mark Masten, the projects will be split into chunks, and funded using capital facilities bonds.
“We use our capital outlay funds, the funds we get to maintain buildings and we use those to pay off bonds,” Masten said. “We did this at Cleveland in 2002 and 2003 and those are now paid off, so there will be no taxation increase.”
There is a reverse referendum feature, where the public could vote against doing this, but according to Masten that is rarely done when a tax increase isn’t present.
“Bond rates are very good right now,” Masten said, adding that they are waiting for the facilities vote on April 2, because if that initiative passes, projects could be merged and sold as one bond for a more favorable rate.
The District anticipates putting out a call for bids on the projects in May.
