Huron Valley Schools Says Highland Needs to Commit Money to Save School Gym
Highland Township will have to hold a special meeting this week to discuss committing $150,000 to save the Highland Middle School gym.
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Despite a large showing of support by the Highland community last week to save the gym at Highland Middle School, the Huron Valley Schools Board of Education asked Highland Supervisor Rick Hamill to get the township to commit $150,000 to the the school district at Monday's school board meeting in order to save the building.
School Board President Sean Carlson said he appreciated the show of support, but that the school board needed the monetary commitment in order to move forward with the township.
The asbestos removal at the property is scheduled to be completed Feb. 14 or Feb. 15, so the time line for the township to commit the money is short.
Following the asbestos removal, demolition of the building will begin March 1 unless the township can give the school district the money needed to save the gym, school officials said.
"I think what you've done is a good first step," Carlson said. "But, I think the ball is still in Highland Township's court."
If the township board cannot come up with the money in the next week, the building will be demolished.
Hamill said at the school board meeting Monday that he will be calling a special meeting to discuss the matter with the township board.
At last week's township meeting, Hamill told the crowd that the township legally could not commit taxpayer dollars to the project unless the township and school district had an agreement laying out how the township would benefit from the investment.
Monday night, Hamill said the township does have the money available to set aside for the project, but the township board will have to decide if that's something they are willing to do.
"We have the money in the fund balance that we can set aside to support the project, but we want to make sure this is a community project done with community support," Hamill said. "We want to put the right dollars into this project, not necessarily taxpayer's dollars."
Hamill said he and the township board are working hard to ensure the end result is a positive one for Highland and its residents.
"The time lines they (the district) have given us have been short, we've been working our butts off to try and make something good happen, I'm going to go home tonight and get started," Hamill said.
Other township board members in attendance echoed Hamill's resolve.
"We need to go home and sleep on this, then get to work and see what we can do," Trustee Charles Dittmar said.
Judi Crawford
8:28 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
We all need to think about the value of this building to our community....it will be a wonderful asset and we need to keep pushing forward to make this happen. I am just sorry that the schools aren't on board with the community. Keep Highland growing and great
Bob
2:51 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
We already paid for this building with our school tax dollars. Why is the school board holding highland hostage for money now? What a bunch of crap. I know who I won't be voting for for school board next time around.
Laura Vogel
3:57 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
How the monies were raised/spent for the construction of the building has nothing to do with finding a revenue stream to continue the maintenance/upkeep of the building. I find it refreshing, frankly, that neither governmental entity -- not the township nor the school board -- are blindly signing up to continue maintaining a structure that has no day-to-day use planned. If a viable plan can be made for justifying spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars, annually, to maintain the structure (or a portion of the structure) so that it is well-utilized, then that's great. But to say that we need to continue pouring money into the structure simply because it's already there is not being a good steward of our tax dollars.
Bob
4:48 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Laura, You may have missed the part of the meeting last week where the HV Schools director of recreation said that this building was well used even after it was closed and that it would be difficult finding space at other HV facilities for these activities. I would like to see this buliding remain but not if it is not self supporting.
If the schools use it let them pay. If the area sports and seniors use it let them pay. What I haven't seen from the schools or Hamill is what is the real cost to keep it open and where will the money come from. The school board keeps passing the ball back to the township and setting deadlines for their response. The dead lines are very short and don't give anyone time for a reasonable review of the real impact to the township.
Maybe the school board and Highland Township board should sit together and come up with a plan to either keep it open or tear it down based on its possible use verses the cost.
It just seems to me that the school board wants rid of it.
Laura Vogel
10:05 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
You're right, Bob. I missed the meeting the other week. Thanks for filling in the details. I think we're all in agreement that it makes sense to keep if it will be used, but that it doesn't make sense to keep it for the sake of keeping it. And yes, it does seem like there's a bit of "hot potato" going on between both the two aspects of our area/local government (schools versus twp).