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Milton
and Ridge Elementary Schools
Neighborhood Schools
5th
and 6th Grades in Nearby Schools
Junior
High, Junior High Auditorium, and All Downtown Schools
Central
Administration Building
(Historic
South Elementary Is Already Gone, Turned Into Wacky Arts Center)
Middle
School for 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th
Grades
Performing
Arts Center
New Offices for Superintendent, Staff, Buses
Athletic Building
Addition
To Crim Elementary
(Watch Out For
Sneaky School Realignment)
Bowling Green School Board President Paul Windisch
said at the meeting Aug. 16 that the board had “exhausted its input” and joined
three other board members in voting to ask the taxpayers to vote for a $43.2
million bond issue on Nov. 8.
The loan apparently will be paid off
over 28 years at 5.25 percent interest. A quick calculation shows that the
monthly payments for such a loan would be $245,666.35 or nearly $3 million a
year. This will require additional 5.43 mills of taxation of school district
property owners. If you own a $200,000 home, you will pay more than $300 in
additional taxes in 2006 if the bond issue passes. This will be on top of
the 4.2 mills that citizens voted in the May primary election for school
operating expenses. Be ready to take in laundry to pay your taxes!
Voters are being asked to tax
themselves to the tune of nearly 10 mills this election year, perhaps the
biggest increase in BG history (even without counting the park board levy).
Can school realignment and
closing Ridge and Milton schools be far behind? So much for the listening
sessions held last year. More like soft-soaping the public sessions.
The BG school board has a lot of
nerve. The district is losing students, the board and superintendent have no
plan for reversing the losses, and they want lots more of us taxpayers’ money
so it can build monuments to its poor judgment.
-- John K. Hartman, publisher, 4 Corners News & Views, John.Hartman@dacor.net
(Turn
to page 2 for the latest on the Sentinel Saga.)
Page 2 4 Corners News & Views Sept. 1, 2005
Led By Kim Layden, a
resident of South Church Street, the Boomtown group exploded onto the local
scene to oppose the inside deal to level the houses around the post office that
was devised by realtor Dick Newlove, who has offices near the post office, and
Mike Marsh, the city law director, BGSU trustee, board of elections member and
local attorney, who has offices near the post office. The duo had acquired the
houses around the post office and was ready to sell them to the city to be demolished
for a parking lot. City Council and the Mayor signed off on the deal but forgot
to factor in the determination and savvy of Layden and her Boomtown crew.
What followed was a massive
initiative petition drive to force the issue onto the November 2002 ballot.
The Boomtowners got more than 1,600 signatures and forced the issue back in
front of an unappreciative City Council, Mayor, Newlove and Marsh. Faced with a
thunderous rejection of their plans, the demolition was scotched and the
neighborhood preserved.
Fast-forward to 2005. After seeing
how rudely that City Council, the Mayor, Newlove and Marsh were treated by the
citizens in 2002, the Library Board, developer Bob Maurer and city officials
apparently used a different tack in dealing with the public: Demolish the
houses and bulldoze the land before anybody finds out so that nothing can be
done to stop it.
On Monday Aug. 8, residents of North Grove Street a block west of the Wood County District Public Library awoke to the sound of the demolition of the home on the northwest corner of Church and Court streets. Later in that week, they were treated to the sound of bulldozers leveling the land where the house had stood and land to the north of it to a level many feet lower than before. Now the neighbors on North Grove face a sizable drop off abutting their properties not to mention the absence of trees and vegetation, replaced by dirt.
Only after the work was started and only after it
was too late to stop it, were the neighbors consulted. Of course the neighbors
were outraged. They and most everybody I know cannot believe the library that
we know and love would undermine its neighbors all in the name of parking
spots. Fortunately, The Blade’s Jennifer Feehan has covered the
controversy fully. The Sentinel Tribune, whose editor David Miller was a
longtime library board member, as usual can’t seem to bring itself to properly
criticize and cover its favorites. Why? The Haswells, owners of the Sentinel
Tribune, are noted as big donors on the library’s walls. So is Maurer.
Since the remodeled and expanded library re-opened in 2003, I have visited the library at least one a week, sometimes twice. Only on one occasion was I unable to park in the big lot west of the library. And on that occasion, I found a parking spot nearby.
If the library truly needed additional parking – and
I do not believe it does – it should have made a deal with City Hall to
free up the 9 spaces in the library lot that are marked reserved for city
employees.
The city just bought the old gas station across from the junior high for
employee parking, so it could easily have given up the 9 spaces. Problem
solved.
But that would be too easy for the behind-the-scenes dealmakers who run Bowling Green. They rule the city except when Kim Layden and the Boomtowners get their dander up.
So it’s Kim Layden versus Bob Maurer in a 15-round
championship fight. I bet on Kim!
4 Corners News & Views You Read It Here First Tip Of The Month: Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman will drop out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary and run for the U.S. Senate against “Opie” Dewine.
4 Corners News & Views of Bowling Green was founded
June 1, 2005 by John K. Hartman, its publisher. Its purpose is to provide
additional news and points-of-view to citizens of Bowling Green in the belief
that thorough awareness of and discussion of issues makes for a better
community. It will be available free at various drop-off points in Bowling
Green or by email by sending your email address and request to
John.Hartman@dacor.net. Patrons may support 4 Corners BG for $10 per issue. Ads
may be purchased for $20 per issue. Comments and submissions are welcome.
Contact information: John.Hartman@dacor.net
; 419-352-8180; 1400 Wren Road, BG, OH 43402
Read back issues at www.LiberalBG.org
Copyright 2005, John K.
Hartman, All Rights Reserved.