Bond payments won't cost taxpayers

In a Tuesday special meeting that took only as long to read the resolution and vote on it, the Steeleville District 138 Board of Education passed a resolution to abate the taxes on its school improvement bonds.

The district will make the payments on the bonds, which total $2.9 million, with proceeds from the 1 percent countywide sales tax.

No additional cost will come to taxpayers and the bonds will mature in 10 years.

"We have to repay those bonds, the $2.9 million," said District Superintendent Stephanie Mulholland after the meeting. "We already have some bonds that are out and those bonds are being paid for with tax money.

"The difference is the $2.9 million is being paid for by an alternative revenue source, which is the sales tax."

The new borrowing will help the district tackle some items on its wish list, including renovations to the Steeleville High School science rooms.

"We estimated 70 percent (of the sales tax funds)," Mulholland said, when asked what amount of the sales tax funds would go toward the bond payments. "We took the first year, of what data we've had from the revenue we've gotten, and had a monthly average.

"And then we took 70 percent of that and sold bonds in that amount."

"Rather than doing little projects and having to save up and then doing a project, we can just knock the big things out and get those done on the front end," Mulholland continued.

In regard to the science rooms renovation, Mulholland gave an update to the Herald Tribune on a meeting she had with representatives from consultant Sheldon Laboratory Systems last week.

"We finalized all of the casework and we did make a couple of minor changes," Mulholland said. "Changes of types of cabinets. We wanted to have a little more workspace, and so, with switching some things around, we were able to get some more workspace around the perimeter of the room."

Chester District 139 is also using Sheldon as a consultant for the science rooms renovation at Chester High School.

During last Thursday's meeting, the Chester board inquired about a penalty clause in the general contractor's contract that would cover the district in case the renovation wasn't completed on time.

Mulholland was asked her thoughts on a similar contract clause for Steeleville.

"I have not done that," she said. "And I don't think that's anything that we've done in this district and so, no I really haven't really thought about it.

"I just always take the advice of the architect and they're pretty confident. Hopefully, the contractor that ends up getting the bid is responsible and would be able to meet those deadlines."