A $260 million bond issue, intended to help fund new schools and address deferred maintenance, will be voted on Wednesday by the Hamilton County Commission.
The specific projects set to benefit from the future bond revenue include the new North River Elementary, which receives $42 million in the proposal presented to commissioners by Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp and Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Justin Robertson.
The Gateway school will receive $40 million; Soddy Daisy Middle will receive between $25 million to $30 million; Brainerd/Dalewood six-12 will receive $25 million to $30 million; Clifton Hills Elementary will receive $10 million to $20 million; and Thrasher Elementary will receive $5 million, according to documents given commissioners.
“All these projects are collaborations between the school board, the school system and county government,” Wamp told commissioners at this week’s commission meeting. “These are conversations ongoing, and it will take a few years for the proceeds to be expended.”
Deferred maintenance, the highest line item on the proposed projects to be funded by the bond, will receive $60 million.
“This is the most aggressive step toward facilities in the history of the joint school system,” Robertson told the commission.
The remaining funds from the bond will be directed toward school contingencies and general government projects, as well as recreational and wastewater investments.
Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, asked why $10 million was being allotted for unspecified general government projects.
The spending estimates on some projects were half of the proposed cost, Sharpe said.
“Some of the dollar figures don’t match the needs of those specific projects,” he said, referring to the school projects listed.
Wamp told commissioners in response that some of the new school projects were turning out to be more complex than the school board anticipated when it approved a list of projects earlier this year.
“Some things have changed since then,” Robertson told commissioners, explaining that there were challenges to moving forward with certain new school buildings without disrupting student learning.
Plans for the last bond issue “shifted dramatically” before the money was spent, Robertson added. Not all these projects will get done in Phase 1 with this bond issue, he said.
“There is some risk in outline,” Wamp told commissioners. “People will try to hold us to these numbers, that is impossible. This is our best estimate.”
The county commission will still have to approve how every future dollar of bond revenue is spent, even if the panel approves the $260 million bond issue Wednesday.
Another $25 million bond issue, if approved next week, will refund a 2015 bond issue, saving the county $1.3 million, according to county officials.
Contact Joan McClane at jmcclane@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.