[Vision2020] New High School
Nancy Chaney
nchaney at moscow.com
Sat Feb 19 14:03:59 PST 2005
Dear Janice,
I’m forwarding your query and the threaded discussion to City Supervisor
Gary Riedner for him to direct as appropriate, presumably to our
Community Planning Dept. I’m guessing that my remark that triggered your
misimpression was in response to another attendee’s inaccurate assertion
that the City/Mayor had already taken a position that no special
requests would be considered if the high school were to stay downtown. I
merely intended to indicate that the process allows for consideration by
the Planning and Zoning Commission, Board of Adjustment, and the City
Council in conjunction with a public hearing.
Thank you again for your interest.
Nancy
-----Original Message-----
From: Janice Willard [mailto:jwillard at turbonet.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 12:23 PM
To: Nancy Chaney; 'Pat Kraut'; cburke at wsunix.wsu.edu
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] New High School
Hi Nancy,
Thank you so much for the clarification. I should have checked with you
prior to writing, and I apologize if I misrepresented your comments.
Could you please tell us what would be the issues involved in repairing
the current high school regarding city regulations and parking issues?
How would such decisions be determined, and who (which governmental
agencies) would be involved? There are a lot of rumors floating around
about this and I think some clarification would be helpful for all.
I agree with you that the implications for our community are broader
than any dollar amount on a proposed bond. One needs to but cast their
eyes south to Boise or north to Coeur D'Alene to see the effects of
unbridled development and urban sprawl on areas that were once beautiful
and wholesome places to live.
JW
----- Original Message -----
From: Nancy Chaney <mailto:nchaney at moscow.com>
To: 'Janice <mailto:jwillard at turbonet.com> Willard' ; 'Pat
<mailto:pkraut at moscow.com> Kraut' ; cburke at wsunix.wsu.edu
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 11:08 AM
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] New High School
Janice et al.
As a point of clarification, please know that I did not speculate on
whether a variance, easement, or other special consideration would be
approved in this situation. I suspect that you misunderstood something I
said at the meeting you describe. I appreciate the healthy dialogue on
this important topic that will affect the whole of our community for
generations to come. Its implications are broader than any dollar amount
on a proposed bond issue.
Nancy Chaney
-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Janice Willard
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 2:07 PM
To: Pat Kraut; cburke at wsunix.wsu.edu
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] New High School
Hi Charles, Pat and other Visionaries
I think that an important thing for people to know is that we have never
gotten accurate numbers for what it would cost to correct some of the
current problems at the current high school. We have been told that it
would cost nearly as much to fix the current school as to build a new
one, but that actually isn't accurate. It is not that the answer given
was wrong, but rather no one ever asked the right question.
What I found out at the last meeting is that the architects, in all of
the cost estimates they were asked to do, never were asked to make the
current high school usable. They were asked to give the estimates on
what it would cost to make it equivalent to a *brand new,*
state-of-the-art school. An example that came out of that discussion
was that there was an estimate of 1.5 million dollars to re-do the
auditorium. The architects were asked, why so much? The answer they
gave was that they were told to make it state of the art. So to do
that, they would have to tear out all the seating and replace it with
new, rebuild the stage and replace both the sound and lighting with
state of the art systems. That's where that number came from.
Now I don't know about you, but the last time that I was in that
auditorium, it seemed pretty functional and the seats weren't all that
bad. Certainly it is usable pretty much as is with some minor
improvements--certainly not gutting the entire thing and starting over.
The numbers we given are for the *Extreme Makeover* version: gutting the
building to the exterior walls. Certainly there are things needing
replacing and repairing, but what the architects said was that they had
never been asked to calculate the numbers for a functional upgrade. One
thing for sure, if they did this, the cost will come in a lot less than
they are giving now for renovations to the current high school. The
current costs are as if someone remodeled their house and tore out
everything down to the exterior walls just to fix a leaky toilet.
The parking issue bears closer inspection as well. I have heard it said
they can't fix any of the things that need fixing at the high school,
like the chemistry labs or locker rooms, because if they did so, they
would lose the easement that they have and would then have to provide a
city block's worth of off street parking. But I believe that this is
also incorrect. City Councilwoman Nancy Channing attended one of the
meeting that I was at and said that repairs and renovations would likely
be allowed. And the parking issues can be handled in a number of ways.
So this is another huge cost given to continuing the use of current high
school that also may not be true.
JW
----- Original Message -----
From: cburke at wsunix.wsu.edu
To: Pat Kraut <mailto:pkraut at moscow.com>
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] New High School
That may be so, but the shell game still continues. We are having a hard
enough time filling and paying for the 1912 building. Who is going to
pay for the old school renovation into county offices? Building a new
high school costs more than the cost of the new school's construction.
There are the costs associated with building infrastructure associated
with the new school, as mentioned in earlier posts, in addition to the
renovation costs to the existing school. All of these costs will be
passed to the Latah County tax payer. I feel that maintaining and
building upon the existing sites is a more prudent financial approach to
providing educational facilities than expanding into farmland.
Charles Burke
I believe the county government offices covet much of the old high
school.
PK
----- Original Message -----
From: cburke at wsunix.wsu.edu
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:48 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] New High School
Now that the facilities committee has recommended that the upcoming
school bond issue cover the construction of a new high school, what is
to become of the old high school? It seems to me that if the current
high school is inadequate due to need of repair, then it will require
renovation irregardless, unless it is to be demolished. I wonder where
the renovation money will come from? I was hoping that we could renovate
the old high school and thereby get more bang for our money...a
renovated building and a well functioning school. To accommodate a
revised configuration (4 year vs 3 year high school), I had hoped that a
conversion of the high school to a junior high and the junior high to a
high school would get some traction, but apparently that hasn't
happened. I'd like to hear others comment on this subject.
Charles Burke
_____
_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
http://www.fsr.net
mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
øøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøø
_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
http://www.fsr.net
mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
ØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØØ
_____
_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
http://www.fsr.net
mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
_____
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.0.0 - Release Date: 2/18/2005
_____
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.0.0 - Release Date: 2/18/2005
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20050219/b0807d4e/attachment-0001.htm
More information about the Vision2020
mailing list