posted by Mike Madison at 10:41 AM /
Mt. Lebanon has the relative luxury of thinking creatively about a Rec Center -- if it chooses to do so. The high school renovation train seems to be leaving the station, however. Is it too late to have a constructive community conversation about what the renovated high school facility should include? We can't afford a "best of everything" renovation.
4 Comments:
On Pittsblog there is a post that impeachment groups are gearing up. Anyone know how to contact or view group's activities?
Also, a group formed to press for a law suit on Sable buyout, believe it was lead by a Ms. Zappala, any thing available as far as contacts?
Haven't formed any opinions yet whether buyout was good or bad, but believe as auditor general states in his report, residents have the right to know the facts!
The impeachment argument has been led by Jim Menegazzi. I don't have an email address for him handy.
What I'd like to know is what reasons the school board is giving for having to renovate the high school -- ESPECIALLY after spending millions of dollars to renovate the elementary and junior high schools!!!
Can't they just take a break for a few years instead of consistently bending the taxpayers of Mt. Lebanon over to fork out even more money?
I too am not convinced that a new high school is needed at this time. Looking at the Trib article and the reasons given is not convincing. Lets look...
$900,000 for an air chiller - OK to me this falls in the catagory of maintenance, I need a new furnace and a/c in my home. I'm not going to tear it down and build new. Bite the bullet and fix it.
$550,000 for boiler repairs - see above.
$450,00 for roof replacement - same thing, this is an item that you incur with any structure. Building a new school does not eliminate it.
$150,000 for auditorium seats. Yes they're not in the best of shape. But again, this is a maintenance issue, should be figured in the annual operating budget year-to-year. But, hey, had they handled the Sable issue better, one year of her buyout would've taken care of that.
$235,000 for concrete repairs - seems high but I don't work in construction. Again, this is a maintenance issue that should be accounted for.
$750,000 for stadium lights. Let me understand this - if we build a new high school we don't have to replace stadium lights? What does that have to do with a new building?????
All told these items total excluding lights $2,285,000, a far cry from the $85 million mentioned for the new building!
It seems to me that this board is looking for every excuse to build new and I just don't see it. Furthermore these estimates are all forwarded by the very people who want it- can we trust them?
Again given the Sable buyout, teacher contract, usage fees and the new pool design fiasco this board is out of control and need to be watched very, very closely.
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