(Milford)– As construction on the new middle school continues, planning is kicking into high gear for some projects at the Okoboji Elementary and high school buildings along with the district’s administrative facility.
The Okoboji School Board met Monday evening with an architect from FEH, the same firm that’s overseeing construction of the middle school. Superintendent Todd Abrahamson tells KUOO news the next phase of projects consist mainly of infrastructure improvements…
“Parking lots, the baseball-softball fields, maintenance facility, the big thing, also extending our commons area at the high school cafeteria, and to do that he put a proposal together that we’ll bring back to the board for approval. Tonight was just to get an over all for that, and his team once the board approves that, his team will come up here and start doing their initial assessment to finish out our infrastructure needs and then bring that proposal to the board in the spring of 2020 and then just keep this projects going, the construction going, so.”
Abrahamson says the cost of those projects would be in addition to the $25 million bond issue voters approved for the new middle school and track and field improvements. He says they would be financed by borrowing against the district’s local option sales tax dollars, or SAVE, which voters in the Okoboji School District recently renewed. Abrahamson says there is a deadline in which they need to get those projects started in order to avoid some red tape…
“Under the new law when you borrow against your SAVE dollars now and if it’s under the 15 million you have three years to spend those dollars. And so the minute we put the plan in place and start drawing the first dollar then those three years start. We will prioritize what needs to be done year one, year two, and then year three. Hopefully it’s done by in three years but you have three years to get that done once you start drawing down those dollars.”
Abrahamson says the board hopes to have atleast a rough idea on a dollar amount of the infrastructure projects at their meeting in December. He says part of the process will also include putting together a preventative maintenance plan.
