Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Overcrowded schools suggestion

Posted in: PATA
That's a Fact Jack!!

I wanted to outline where we are in the number of approved plats in the city. Early in this year I was aware that the city had 1,502 single family lots approved within the city. In addition to the single family number there were 453 approved condo/apartment lots. Since the first of the year there has been 121 single family building permits issued by the city leaving about 1381 approved single family lots. I believe we have also burnt off 132 condo lots leaving 321 condo lots still available. It is also my understanding that one approved plat has expired with 277 lots in it. So the final number at this time of single family lots is around 1,104.

Since the two lots per acre initiative ordinance in 2002 there has been no new plat approval applications submitted to the city.

I doubt all of the plat approved residential lots will be built on anytime soon. The Pickerington City Council chose not to expand their sewer plant in 2004. They must reserve some capacity for future commercial development and put a hold on residential development until a new plant is built. Even if they started on a new plant tomorrow it would take at least three years to complete.

HAVE ANY OF YOU HEARD OF PLANS FOR THE CITY TO BUILD A NEW SEWER PLANT ANYTIME SOON?

Will growth continue as the schools are predicting?










By Bill Murray
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Try Paying Attention

Hey folks, why don't you try paying attention here. In one message you complain the BOE won't get outside consultants and in another you kevetch that they have. Weird.

As a member of the Facilities Review Committee once again let me assure you the BOE gave us no mandates, gave us no instruction, attended no meetings. In fact, a number of members are angry that the BOE hasn't publically reviewed the report at all. So much for hard work. By the way, we also had outside advisors from the state BOE, the state facilities commission, legal aid, engineering and architechural help. And we used the state laws, rules and guidelines. Try reading those sometimes.

Have any of the contributors here ever bothered to walk through both high schools or are you just repeating beauty shop gossip.

Changing the subject, growth is down in Violet Twn but my unofficial sources tell me Liberty Twn granted 50-75 permits this year and expects to add 200 to 250 more in the next two years. That's in our school district. City of Columbus is quietly talking about low income housing in their undeveloped areas in the district which may add 1000 families in 5 years. They don't have to educate them that and Columbus can use our district as a giant magnet school. Try your silly little poor mouthing at a Columbus City Council meeting (all liberal democrats along with our beloved mayor) and see how far you get before you're hit with a federal lawsuit for minority discrimination!

We got problems folks and band aid fixes won't work anymore.
Too Broke to pay attention

Jim; you try to say that those posting here are not paying attention then complain that the school has not reviewed your committee?’s report publicly. I think it is the board?’s option to adopt or not to adopt a study made by an advisory committee.

Jim; you listed the consultants, engineers and others that helped the FRC with their report but didn?’t mention any officials from Violet Township or the City of Pickerington where 75% of the school district?’s future growth will come from. Besides I doubt anyone from the FRC ever looked into exactly where does all of this school growth come from and not ?“the unofficial channels?” you refer to in your posting. If you are going to fix the growth problem then identify where the problem is before you make recommendations to correct it or to accommodate it. I would think this would be a good tool in planning where these future schools should be located. Did the school administration provide the FRC any numbers of where these kids live and what kind of growth trends are happening in the different government jurisdictions?

I am sure if the official numbers of total number of NEW students coming in this year are lower than predicted in the FRC report then another credibility gap opens up between the school board, administration and the public. In a time when the Board should be trying to close that gap they are presented a report that is ticking. Is the housing bubble about to burst? Is there going to be a dip in the school enrollment? Only thing planned for here is an ever increasing student enrollment. No other options are considered.

I am sure the citizens that served on this advisory committee were all dedicated to the cause and wanted to do a great job. With the information they were provided with they probably reached the only conclusion possible and that conclusion was probably predictable before the first meeting of the FRC was held. My charge here Jim is that the school administration following long established policies used you. They wanted a committee of unbiased citizens to rubber stamp their own growth estimates to justify state aid in funding new schools. In other words, a committee to legitimize their efforts and their public statements.

Now there is the comment of have you ever walked through the two High Schools? I have no idea what that is suppose to mean. First there is no reason for most in our community to walk through any of our schools. The only time I have ever seen the interior of our schools has been limited to the activities of one of my children. I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and they are nice.

I think the message being very clearly delivered here by the FRC report is that at the PLSD it is business as usual and if you disagree with any part of it you are either ?”NOT PAYING ATTENTION?” you are narrow minded or some other insult questioning the intelligence of the public.

That tactic may work on a used car lot but not in the voting booth not now.


















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You Missed the Point

You missed the point. Everyone is using second and third hand information rather than looking into problems themselves.

By the way and for the third time on this web site, the growth figures we used are from the State of Ohio and the US Census. Their use is mandated by state law. If you don't like the numbers, take it up with the US Congress.

Consider this inconvenient fact: Since 1995 the PLSD has taxed and spent somewhere around $135 million dollars on school buildings. That bought us Tussing ES, Harmon and Diley MS, Lakeview JHS, and North HS. The new FRC plan spends between $160 and $175 million over 15 years and buys: two new elementary schools, adds 25 years to the service life of 3 older elementary schools, buys a middle school, a new Jr High and a new expandable High School. (Costs depend on the options we select and land costs.) And if we do it right the State of Ohio is willing to pickup up to 48% of the authorized costs. From our perspective that will be 35-40% (we build better than the state minimums). That's $50 million of free money? It's raining soup!! Grab yourself a bucket!!

Look at it this way, the $37 million bond issue in Nov will build 2 new elementary schools and extend the life of Pickerington, Violet, and Fairfield ES. The new elementaries are planned on the Tussing pattern which meets all state standards. That means we get the new middle school we'll need shortly for free. Cost to the taxpayer? A dollar a day in additional, tax deductable property tax for the next 10 years.

We'll know in November whether the Mid West still has self-reliant, upright folks or if we've become just another mob of whiny pseudo victims waiting for Nanny to come kiss it and make it better. But be prepared for the value of your homes to start plummeting.
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