To quote baseball great Yogi Berra, the May 2 primary election may appear to some voters to be “deja v&#x; all over again.”

Not only are some familiar names returning to the ballot, one issue is being revisited: The Ironton City Schools’ bond issue and property tax levy.

City voters will be asked — for the third time — to pay a portion of the cost of building new schools. The levy is a matter about which most people have a vociferous opinion.

Does the city need new schools or can students and teachers make do with the old ones? Can people afford another tax? Can the city afford to pass up a chance to get state money? Will it usher in economic development or is such an idea a mere pipedream?

It is up to the voters to decide.

The idea

The proposal that is on the November ballot calls for three school facilities: A new elementary school that would replace Whitwell, Kingsbury and West Ironton and a new middle school.

Both of those facilities would be built on land adjacent to the existing middle school on Delaware Street.

Once those buildings are completed, the existing high school would be torn down and a new high school would be built in its footprint.

School officials have agreed to explore the possibility of saving the high school’s front entrance, auditorium and other architecturally significant elements, if it is economically feasible to do so.

Voters must agree to contribute $18 million to the $48.28 million project. The Ohio School Facilities Commission will

contribute the rest.

The $18 million local share includes $6.79 million for extras that the state will not pay for.

On that list are a 600-seat auditorium at the high school, fa?ade upgrades to give the new high school some of the finer touches of the existing building, an enclosure for the Conley Center and additional classrooms and physical education space at the elementary school.

The amount each family would pay if the bond issue and levy passes is based on the assessed tax value of their house, which is 35 percent of the county’s appraised value.

For instance, a property owner whose house has an appraised value of $40,000 has a tax value of $14,000, and would be charged $107 annually.

A property owner whose house is appraised at $70,000, and has a tax value of $24,500, would pay $187 annually.

If you’ve the money

Bring up the subject of the bond issue and one of the first points of discussion is money: How much will it cost me and can I afford it along with other issues and fees on the ballot?

“Money has a lot to do with it. I don’t want my children and grandchildren to have to pay for this,” city resident Carl Colegrove. “And the (municipal) stormwater deal, we have no idea what that’s going to cost.”

School Board President KathyKratzenberg countered that discussions about money have been the source of a lot of misinformation.

“It’s not going to cost what most people think it’s going to cost,” Kratzenberg said. “If they have questions about what it’s going to cost them, they can call the board office. We also have a calculator on our Web site.”

Kratzenberg said she understands the people who say they can’t afford another tax, particularly those who are elderly and on fixed incomes.

She stressed that many elderly residents can and do receive a homestead exemption, that reduces their annual property taxes. Those who pay rent for government housing will pay nothing toward the bond levy.

Patty Freeman teaches at Kingsbury Elementary School. She said those who worry about paying for the education of present and future generations should consider that someone paid for their education, and previous generations footed the bill for the schools that are in service now.

Freeman said when she was growing up, her family sacrificed to give her an education. She wishes other people would sacrifice so that students now and in the future could have the better educational facilities.

“I wish people could see the investment they’re making extends far beyond their lifetime,” Freeman said.

“Every tax and every fee have been instituted to maintain the status quo,” Kratzenberg said. “This is something where you can actually see what your money is buying. If someone said to you, buy a Cadillac and we’ll give you two more Cadillacs, you’d be crazy not to do it.”

But to Colegrove and many others, the bond issue is another opportunity for yet another group to pick his pocket.

“They’re going to run small business out of town,” Colegrove said. He pointed out that the money that would be given to the district from the state is coming from taxes paid in part by Ironton taxpayers.

Just how bad are they?

School officials have contended for years that the district’s facilities are old and outdated. They point to a laundry list of problems at each school: Heating, cooling and ventilation, energy efficiency, plumbing and the electrical system are all on that list.

When Irontonians went to Portsmouth recently to visit the new school there, the comparisons were not lost on Freeman.

“The air conditioning, the heating can all be controlled. The windows have the blinds built in them. Everything can be locked down in case of a crime or a problem. They have video cameras in the building and in the rooms. It was nice to see the new materials. We’ve been patching things for years,” Freeman said.

“Ours (facilities) are outdated. This is not a negative, it’s just time to move to another level. If we have the opportunity to get help from the state, it’s time to do it to help present students and future students.”

Freeman said handicapped accessibility is another issue for Ironton schools.

But business owner Bill Lightner said he doesn’t think the old buildings are in such bad shape they can’t be saved and repaired.

“This school (Ironton High School) can be saved for 50 cents on the dollar just by repairing instead of tearing down and building new,” Lightner said.

He said he feared the newer buildings would be of a poorer quality, with construction that would not survive as long as the buildings in use today.

And he blasted school officials over the years for allowing the buildings to deteriorate so badly that there is now an argument about whether the buildings can even be saved.

“All the schools are in good shape, they just haven’t gotten any real TLC since Harold Conley (was superintendent). But they just don’t like to hear the truth,” Lightner said. “Twenty years from now we’re going to face the same thing because the schools being built today will be in bad shape.

Colegrove agreed.

“I talked to several people at Ironton High School and they said there’s nothing wrong with that building,” he said. Colegrove said he would support remodeling and over the years he would have given money for heating or cooling systems.

Lightner said Ironton has many buildings that are as old or older than the city’s school and those other old buildings are still in use, still viable today.

“St. Joe was renovated and it’s just as old as Ironton High School is. There are a lot of things that can be done to the high school rather than tearing it down,” he said.

Kratzenberg disagreed. She said state officials made estimates of what it would take to renovate versus what it would take to build new.

Building new was the cheaper route. Kratzenberg said if the district had chosen to fix up the old and forego the new, the price tag, she said, was estimated to have been $11.3 million.

“And that was to renovate, not to restore,” Kratzenberg stressed. “It was to bring them up to state standards, with no possibility of bond reduction.”

Colegrove said one of his biggest concerns is what the new building will look like and if school officials don’t know what they’re going to be buying, he doesn’t know if he wants to help pay for it.

“We don’t know what they’re going to build,” he said. “Mr. (Shawn) Walker told me that sketch they have is just an artist’s concept.”

Will they come?

Those who favor the levy have contended all along that economic bustle may follow on the heels of this infusion of state money.

They say the people who come into Ironton to build those new schools will need to eat somewhere at lunch time. Those who live out of town may opt to move into the city, may shop in the city, purchase gasoline at convenience marts and buy groceries at the grocery stores.

And in the long run, new buildings, supporters have said, would make Ironton an easier sell to new business and industry.

“When businesses are looking to locate or expand, one of the things they look is the school system, where their kids are going to go to school,” Kratzenberg said.

But Lightner disagreed. He said he doubts building new schools will actually be an economic development tool.

For one thing, an out-of-town contractor will bring in out-of-town workers who will leave once work is done. He suggested Ironton’s problems could be solved locally.

“They’re going to bring in construction workers from out of town. This won’t create permanent jobs for Ironton,” he said. “The only thing that is going to save Ironton is when people here change their mindset and are interested in something besides getting money off the government.”

The rumors

Whether or not school construction will spur economic development may remain to be seen, but the mere talk of such a project has produced a dearth of rumors about what will and won’t happen if the levy is or is not passed.

One tidbit of gossip making the rounds is that, if the bond levy passes, the city will give Kingsbury Elementary to the Ironton Catholic Schools.

Kratzenberg said it is possible that the Catholic system could wind up with the building.

“We did discuss it in a meeting,” Kratzenberg said. “But I can’t say yes or no. It would certainly be an opportunity for them to choose either building if it is available at an economically feasible price.”

The city district cannot use the old buildings to house its own children once the new schools are built. But it does not have to demolish the buildings either.

Kratzenberg said the school levy does allow a certain amount of money for each existing building to be demolished once the new ones are built. If the existing ones are not demolished the money set aside for demolition could be used for bond debt reduction — a savings to the district and to taxpayers.

The sale of any existing building could also be used for debt reduction.

If it is put up for sale, it must be sold to the highest bidder unless it is sold to a government entity. But it can be leased to whatever entity the district would choose.

Another morsel of speculation is that, once the new K-8 facilities are built on Delaware Street, the state will build a new viaduct to eliminate buses having to travel over railroad tracks during flood periods when the floodwalls are closed.

Kratzenberg said the viaduct is not a definite thing. She said there have been conversations with the Ohio Department of Transportation, “but so far that’s all it is, just talk,” she said.

Staff reporter Teresa Moore can be reached at (740) 532-1445 ext. 25 or by e-mail at teresa.moore@irontontribune.com.