Undecided Voters Tour Knox Elementary’s Palmer Wing

 
 

Members of the Whatever It Takes Committee hope to persuade undecided Knox Community School Corporation voters to support a property tax referendum to address problems with the school’s 60-year-old Palmer wing. Issues include an outdated heating and cooling system for which parts are no longer available, an electrical system that is inadequate to handle the load put on it by computers and other techonology and a cafeteria that’s too small to prepare food for the entire student body. They’ve held a series of open houses at the school so voters can see the problems for themselves. One lady, Gail, remains undecided. She says she wants to make sure school officials are prudent stewards of taxpayer money.

“I know there are things that need to be changed, need to be improved, but I’d like to see the costs kept as low as possible. I know there are taxpayers like me who live on a fixed income. We don’t have a lifetime to pay for a tax increase out of the small amount that we get,” she said.

Other taxpayers like Les Jensen question whether the corporation has looked at other options to improve air quality in the classrooms and upgrade the electrical system.

Project supporters say interest rates are extremely low, so now is the best time to move forward with the work. They also note that new construction is a better option than renovations because everything in the current building will need to be brought up to code, which could prove to be quite costly. You can calculate your property tax cost by visiting https://gateway.ifionline.org/CalculatorsDLGF/RefCalculator.aspx.