The Boardman Local School District will have a 5.5-mil renewal issue on the November general election ballot for ‘emergency requirements’ that, if approved, will generate about $4.646 million over the next ten years.
      The local school district could add more to $600,000 in revenue, if it chose to act upon a proposed property agreement with Boardman Township, and if it considered the sale of the current McClurg Rd. location of the Boardman Local School Bus Garage.
      In a proposed property agreement, the school bus garage operation would be moved from its current location, to the former Diamond Steel headquarters on Raupp Ave.
      In exchange, Boardman Township would get two acres of land at the corner of Stadium Dr. and Market St., currently owned by the school board, and has offered to pay the schools about $280,000 additional for the site.
      Meeting in July, the school board unanimously approved a motion authorizing its president and treasurer “to sign and approve the plat...which is proposed to be conveyed to Boardman Township pursuant to a property transfer agreement for a proposed fire station.”
      On Aug. 27, the school board held a special meeting where the topic of an executive session was “purchase or sale of property.”
      The agenda of the meeting noted, “Action will not be taken.”
      The Boardman Local School Bus Garage property on McClurg Rd. is valued at some $340,000. Private buyers have expressed an interest in purchasing that site. But the board, according to a former school official, does not want to act on the sale of the McClurg Rd. property, until an agreement is reached on the Stadium Dr. at Market St. location.
      Boardman Township officials would like to reach an agreement, indeed thought they did, on the proposed fire station property, offering to make annual payments of $25,000 on the property transfer.
      As well, several township officials have indicated the current site of the main fire station, at Boardman-Poland Rd. and Southern Blvd. (including the former Boardman Township Road Department site) could be sold for upwards of $1.2 million to a private developer, that wants to start on its project by late next year.
      Monies from the township’s sale would be used to fund a new, main fire station. Under a proposal made by Township Fiscal Officer William Leicht, the new fire station could be funded with the sale, and no additional taxpayer funds would be needed for the project.
      The old road department building was demolished last year.
      The main fire station was built sometime in the 1930s, as a project of the Works Project Administration. It was ‘remodeled’ in the early 1970s and the work was substandard, as the roof had bad leaks during heavy rainfalls.
      In the 1990s, firemen complained of mold in the basement, and the township spent more than $30,000 conducting air sampling tests.
      Township Trustees have developed plans for the construction of a new fire station, and will soon review ‘final plans’ for such a project.
      A new main fire station, built without an additional tax levy; upwards of $600,000 in additional revenue for the local school district, await a decision from the school board, whose president, Vickie Davis, is the administrative assistant for Boardman Fire Chief Mark Pitzer.
      Additionally, St. Elizabeth Hospital officials have met with township and school board representatives over the past two years, seeking to get the school bus garage away from their health care site.
      They have suggested the bus garage extends onto hospital property, a claim one school official has denied.