JVS district hopes third time is charm for 1-mill levy

COSHOCTON – For the third time since the fall of 2013, voters are again being asked to approve a five-year, 1-mill permanent improvement levy to update and repair the Coshocton County Career Center.

If approved at the polls on May 5, that tax would raise $865,661 annually and would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $35 each year, Coshocton County Deputy Auditor Jinni Bowman said.

If the levy fails again, the Coshocton County Joint Vocational School District will return to voters and ask again, Superintendent Rick Raach said.

“We’ll be going back to it,” he said. “The need is real. We can no longer afford to pay to make major repairs for the building out of the general operating fund. The general operating fund has been deficit-spending for three years in a row.”

Back in 2008, the Ohio School Facilities Commission recommended the district spend $14 million to bring the facility up to modern standards, Raach said. Today, the district is only asking voters to help meet basic needs, he said.

“At the end of the day, the need to make these improvements is real,” he said, “and the longer we wait, the more costly it’s going to be.”

The 86,000-square-foot facility, at 23640 Airport Road, is 37 years old, Raach said, and needs major repairs and updates. The roof is scheduled for replacement in 2017 at a cost of $800,000.

Repaving the parking lots and repairing the sidewalks would cost up to $300,000, he said. Replacing the district’s three buses, van and maintenance truck with newer, used vehicles would cost up to $250,000, he said.

The building’s original fuel-oil boiler, from 1977, no longer works, Raach said, overtaxing its natural-gas replacement, installed in 2002. Ideally, the district would replace those units with three that would alternate service and extend their life cycles, he said. That process could cost up to $200,000, he said, and would include removing a 20,000-gallon fuel oil tank that served the original boiler.

The needs don’t stop there. The electrical, fire suppression and security systems all need upgrading, Raach said, as do all labs, which often make do with old and donated equipment.

For example, the district’s electronics lab houses classes for computers, robotics, digital recording and graphic arts in a former garage bay. The ceiling and lights need lowering considerably, the bay door removed and the heating and cooling fixed to protect the electronic equipment, Raach said.

The dust-collection system for the Building Trades program should be upgraded and moved outdoors, instructor Brad Sarchet said. The Metal Fabrication program, which has a waiting list for next year’s classes, needs electrical updating and new welding equipment.

The Coshocton County Career Center serves 226 juniors and seniors, chiefly from Coshocton, Ridgewood and Riverview high schools, with 325 students expected next year, Principal Eddie Dovenbarger said.

According to its website, coshoctoncareers.org, the center hosts 11 programs: automotive technology, building trades, career skills investigation, cosmetology, criminal justice, culinary arts, early childhood education, electronics, health technologies, metal fabrication and natural resources.

Voters first passed a 2-mill levy in 1975 to build the school, which opened in 1978, and renewed it in 1984, District Treasurer Tammy Hess said. Voters later passed a 0.5-mill operating levy in 2001, and the district is currently collecting at the 2-mill rate, raising $1.5 million inside the county.

It runs on a $3.7 million annual budget, Raach said, with about 80 percent of that going to salaries and benefits.

State and federal funding help bolster that budget, Dovenbarger said.

jwilliams6@coshoctontribune.com

740-295-3417

FYI

What: Five year, 1-mill permanent improvement levy for capital improvements at the Coshocton County Career Center

Cost: $35 annually for owner of $100,000 home

Would raise: $865,661 annually

Beginning: July 1, 2015, due in calendar year 2016

Eligible voters: Residents of Coshocton, Ridgewood and Riverview school districts, and some residents in Tuscarawas, Licking, Muskingum and Guernsey counties, who are included in those school districts.

The Coshocton County Career Center Levy Committee is hosting two more levy information meetings for the public at 6 p.m. Tuesday and April 28 at the Career Center.

Source: Coshocton Chief Deputy Auditor Jinni Bowman, and CCCC Levy Committee