PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend School District will ask voters to approve a capital services property tax levy in the Feb. 14 special election.
The School Board action Monday night also focused attention on the disposition of the 120-year-old Lincoln Building, which was scheduled for demolition in a previous draft of the levy resolution.
The measure approved by the School Board does not include tearing down the historic building — but district officials do not yet know what they will do with the aging structure built in 1892.
If voters approve the levy in February, the measure will generate $4,726,000 over four years, providing funds for the replacement of facilities that have outlived their usefulness.
“There are a lot of things that need to be done,” said Amy Kihle, Port Angeles district financial manager.
“Our computer technology and phones are out of date, we need new roofs and there are safety issues with some of our sidewalks.”
The Chimacum School Board also has voted to place a capital services property tax levy on the Feb. 14 ballot.
The Chimacum proposal is a six-year plan that would raise a total of $7,950,000.
Both school measures replace the bond payments that were voter-approved and are set to expire in 2012.
If approved, the new levies would begin in 2013 and would not represent a significant increase in property taxes, school officials have said.
The Port Townsend School Board originally planned to put the measure on the April 17 election ballot but was persuaded by Superintendent Gene Laes to schedule the vote in February since it is thought that measures presented at that time have a better chance of passage.
Laes also suggested lowering the amount to be raised from $6,998,950 to $4,726,000, which the board approved.
The resolution said the funds would be used to upgrade technology, roofs, carpets, telecommunications, sidewalks, safety/security systems throughout the district’s school facilities, renovate Port Townsend/Chimacum Bus Barn, and make other health, safety, mechanical and educational improvements to school facilities.
Additionally the funds would support the renovation of Grant Street Elementary School, Port Townsend High School and Blue Heron Middle School, including the construction and installation of furniture, equipment, apparatus, accessories and fixtures.
The Lincoln Building, which is now the school’s administrative headquarters, has only one unisex bathroom that requires people to post an “occupied” sign when using the facility.
The administration is preparing to move into a building across the street sometime in the spring, said Mary Colton, district secretary.
The 34,5000-square-foot building was built for $73,000 — which is $1.7 million in 2010 dollars, according to an inflation calculator at www.westegg.com — in 1892 as Lincoln Elementary School.
It once had a clock tower and turrets. Both were destroyed in a storm.
Only about 3,000 square feet on the main floor are in use, with the rest of the building closed off.
School officials have considered renovating the building several times.
Kihle is examining the previous reports now.
A 1992 document estimated that it would cost $2.2 million to make necessary repairs to the exterior, as well as the plumbing, heating and ventilation systems and providing handicapped accessibility.
The repairs were not made, although the front stairs now has a wheelchair lift that gives wheelchair-bound people access to the administrative offices.
The demolition was scratched from the levy request to save money, but also to allow the school district’s examination of the building as a historical site.
School Board Chairwoman Jennifer James Wilson said the building is not designated on the National Register of Historical Places.
“We hope to put together a file so we can decide exactly what we can do with the building,” she said.
“We need to take action one way or another, but it could take years to determine.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
