Le Roy voters approve 1 of 2 capital projects | Top Story | thedailynewsonline.com – The Daily News Online

LE ROY Residents of the Le Roy Central School District approved one of two proposed capital projects on Wednesday.

A $12.1 million asset preservation project involving work at all school buildings was approved with a vote of 583 in favor and 347 against.

A second proposition, a $4.2 million project that included a multi-use turf field at the existing soccer field, failed with 566 votes against the project and 362 votes for the project.

Proposition one, with a cost of $12,131,596, will include work at a half-dozen district buildings and Woodward Memorial Library. The project has an average annual tax increase of 83 cents on a home with a STAR exemption and an assessed value of $100,000.

The project budget estimates 88 percent of the projects cost would be covered by state building aid, with an additional 8 percent drawn from a capital reserve fund and 4 percent from taxpayers.

In a projected timeline for the project, the district would design the project between now and May, seeking approval this summer from the state Department of Education. Bids for work would be solicited and award in the fall, with work commencing before the end of the year. Construction would continue until August 2022

The project work includes:

Wolcott Street Elementary School: Convert heating controls to electronic and Lapp parking lot replacement.

Wolcott Building: Reconstruct building parapet, roof replacement, precast window sill reconstruction, replace exterior windows, rooftop unit replacement, boiler room dewatering, and stair tread replacements.

Lapp Building: Repair water leak in tunnel between building and Woodward Memorial Library.

Trigon Building: Toilet room renovation, locker room/storage renovations, refinish gym floor, remove gym divider partition, auditorium entrance door replacements, auditorium entrance stair repairs, and replace auditorium house lights with LED.

Junior-Senior High School: Roofing replacements, auditorium house and theatrical lightning replacement, and relocate existing generator.

Woodward Memorial Library: Entrance stair repairs.

Bus Garage: Additional emergency generator.

Proposition two, at a cost of $4,188,967, would have included the turf field, new field lights to support a new field layout, relocation of the scoreboard, storage shed and team dugouts, and new bleachers.

Wednesdays vote followed an October 2020 vote in which voters also rejected two propositions. The first proposition, which featured work throughout the district and a multi-use turf at the existing soccer field, was defeated by four votes, 409-405. The second proposition, which included a turf field to be placed inside the track was defeated overwhelmingly, 582-230.

The two propositions, in October, had a total cost of $18,927,500, compared to the revised propositions total of $16,320,563.

The revised proposals represented a decrease of $2,606,937, or 13.8 percent.

In presenting the project a second time, the district made changes to both propositions, including removing the multi-purpose turf field inside of the track and lights at the stadium.

Projects costs were also lowered due to a more consistent market with the pandemic, lower interest rates and a decrease in the Construction Cost Index from last spring, which district officials said lowered estimated costs in the revised propositions.

The changes lowered the average annual tax increase to taxpayers by nearly $10. In October, proposition one would have cost taxpayers with the STAR exemption $10.81 a year on a house assessed at $100,000. The approved proposition will cost 83 cents on a $100,000 home with the STAR exemption.

Had both propositions been approved, a taxpayer with the STAR exemption would have faced an average annual tax increase of $6.26 on a $100,000 home.

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Le Roy voters approve 1 of 2 capital projects | Top Story | thedailynewsonline.com - The Daily News Online