Funds not available for middle school, commissioners say

The members of the Alleghany County Commission and the members of the Alleghany County Board of Education met March 14 and parlayed the concept of and the financial means surrounding a potential middle school in the county.

Members of the Commission stated they were in support of the county schools, but due to the recently proposed revenue neutral tax rate, the Commission cannot financially support a middle school this year, referring to the upcoming 2007-08 fiscal year.

However, with that in mind, County Manager Don Adams told board members, "We're almost to our maximum debt capacity. You could take every single thing that this county borrowed for the last 10 years and double it and still...it's not as much money as we're talking about right here. I'm trying to make sure that the message doesn't go out that we're borrowed to the hilt. I'm not saying that we should go out and borrow more money, but we are talking about a lot of money right now for a county the size of Alleghany County."

Board of Education Chair Clarence Crouse commented, "The board has discussed it also and we realize that. One reason we want to see this done now is if we wait five more years, how much more expensive (will it be). We could have done this five years ago, how many hundreds of thousands, probably millions, would we have saved? That's one reason we talked among ourselves, that we'd like to see it done now. Because if we don't do it now or start on it now, is it going to double in the next five years on that cost of that? That's a concern of ours also."

Commissioner Milly Richardson commented, "That's a valid point, but you have to appreciate where we're coming from. At this point and time, we can't really take on that much money."

In response, board member Mitch Franklin said, "I think we need to look at every financial opportunity we have. There are a lot of different things out there, capital leases and different ways you can finance school improvements. There's a lot of different ways of looking at it and I think we need to look at exhausting every avenue we can and put every effort we can into it. I know you all would agree there's nothing we could invest our money in that's going to bring a better return to us than the education of the kids in this county."

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