Shiner public invited to discuss new school

Shiner public invited to discuss new school
Thursday, June 1, 2005
Barry Halvorson, Victoria Advocate Reporter

VictoriaAdvocate.com Article | Shiner School Construction News | Construction Watch Home Page

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SHINER - A special presentation and public forum to discuss the Shiner school district's plans for a new school facility will be at 6:30 tonight at the First United Methodist Church Activity Center.

The estimated $8 million cost calls for the district to build a new kindergarten through 12th grades school campus near Comanche Stadium on property owned by the district.

The project will be funded through a lease-purchase arrangement with Chancellor Financial, an Austin-based company. It will involve two agreements between the Shiner Independent School District Public Facility Corp. and the lender. One agreement will be for $5.5 million to cover the actual construction costs and the other will be a $2.3 million personal property agreement to cover the cost of air conditioning, light fixtures and other similar items that are not part of the construction portion of the project.

The Shiner school board voted at its May 18 meeting to hold the public forum. At the time, it was recommended the district use the church's activity center to accommodate the anticipated large crowd and because it has better acoustics than the school cafeteria.

In addition, the board also requested that district residents submit questions and concerns of the project in writing prior to the meeting.

"We didn't get any (questions)," Interim Superintendent Trey Lawrence said Tuesday. "We put boxes at both banks in town and informed the public where they were through the Shiner Gazette, but no one submitted anything at either location."

The meeting will start with a presentation and discussion by project architect Jim Singleton and consultant Ken Leach regarding the project.

Lawrence said the presentation will include the visual aids requested by board members.

"We'll have a proposed layout for the building," he said. "But people have to realize it will be very preliminary. Kind of like the first draft of an important essay. But it will show the footprint of how we expect the building to look."

The public forum will follow the presentation. Lawrence said questions from the audience would be accepted. He, Singleton and Leach would answer the questions.

But also following the board's instructions, Lawrence said, responses would be limited to new questions.

"The trustees have approved the lease-purchase and to build at Comanche Stadium," he said. "Those decisions have been made and will not be part of the discussion."

Barry Halvorson is a reporter for The Victoria Advocate.
Contact him at 361-798-3888, or by e-mail at hvilladv@vicad.com.

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