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| Golden Dome |
We are the only school in the distict with a Golden Dome, upgrading the rest of the infrastructure is necessay. Lincoln and Sherman schools were underutilized and very inefficient. Consolidation of the schools system is a step in the right direction. The $57 million dollar project was approved by the district’s voters in October of 2010 and the ability to recoup the costs will be a long term investment.
Journal Kennedy Expansion
31 comments:
What a lot of people don't realize is the bulk of this project will upgrade the section of Ogdensburg Free Academy that was built in the 1970s when St. Mary's closed. That section was built 40 years ago and it needs work.
The heating system for the high school currently depends on 50 year old boilers.
A lot of the roofs need replacement.
While the price tag seems high, city taxpayers will benefit as the district closes two 100 year old buildings (Sherman and Lincoln) and consolidates classes at Kennedy.
The project will allow the district to reduce energy costs and because it includes a lot of energy saving features.
What a lot of people fail to understand is that Ogdensburg residents had two choices. They could pay 100 percent of the costs of repairing these facilities or they could take advantage of state aid ratios that allow the district have state funding pay for almost 98 percent of the cost.
At a time when a lot of contractors are struggling to find work, this project will put hundreds of people to work.
Oh wow... ninty eight percent is free money right... Guess where the free money comes from.... Our taxes jack.. But its OK it all for the kids right....
I'll write slowly and maybe you'll be able to grasp it. We have a high rate of poverty and low per capita incomes in this town which raises our percentage of state aid. If we turn down the state aid we get to pay 100 percent of the costs of repairing 40-year old buildings. I get it that you think there is something noble about shifting state aid to every place else, but it's actually in New York State's long term interest to encourage us to close two 100-year-old buildings, consolidate facilities and make our existing facilities more energy efficient.
I'll speak sloooowly .There is no free lunch. Ogdensburg school enrollment is considerably lower t Han when all 17 phasesof construction were done 20 yrs ago. Ogdensburg has a surplus of very expensive space and THAT should have been been re- assigned to meet whatever was needed .
replace roofs and plumbing and wiring BUT trying to con the unsuspecting public that 57 MILLION dollars is prudent to service a system that has experienced a PRECIPITOUS drop in enrollment and IN a TOWN that has little to NO growth potential is not only ludicrous but sad , just sad that we have to be subjected do this kind of. Lunacy. AT OUR EXPENSE.
A few facts to ruin your day. The city of Ogdensburg has the highest percentage of tax exempt propery in New York State. In 2010, the state concluded it was 64 percent. Most people realize that it's actually far higher, but the figures don't reflect it because the state's tax exempt properties are not constatntly reassessed because there is no reason to do it since the city does not get anything for those tax exempt properties. There's no sense spending money reassessing properties that can not be taxed.
Tax exempt properties include:
- The port of Ogdensburg,
- The bridge approach
- The heavy industrial park
- Commerce Park
- Psychiatric Center
- Armory
- Ogdensburg Correctional
- Bridge and Port's shoreline
- Customs Building
- BOCES
- Parks
- Schools
- Nursing Homes
- Churches
- Hospital
- ICFs
- elderly apartment buildings
- NYSARC
etc.
etc.
etc.
The citizens of Ogdensburg get benefits from having all these tax exempt properties - a lot of state, federal and health care jobs, but it still severely limits the community's ability to collect property taxes to pay for construction costs for schools.
The state school building aid formula helps compensates for the way the state prevents Ogdensburg from collecting property taxes on some of its most expnsive buildings.
I don't think Ogdensburg residents have any apologies to make.
Our community has a 100 year history of taking in and caring for those who others turn their back on.
Our hospitals, psychiatric programs, nursing homes, prisons, ICFs are all testaments to the generosity of spirit that has made Ogdensburg a place where neighbors look out for each other and folks reach out a helping hand.
Those of us who have spent our careers fighting to insure that our community gets a few minor benefits (like the building aid formula) for the sacrifices Ogdensburg has made see that the state has an obligation to help with educating our young people.
But I realize you'll never grasp why the rest of us think Ogdensburg is a great place to live and raise a family.
Not sure so much money should be spent on a shrinking school district. It would have been better spent in growing districts down-state, or even over in Lisbon where they continue to see an increase in enrollment.
Ogdensburg is a dead end. The state and the feds need to stop throwing dollars into this moneypit.
11:10 sorry but there is also a tremendous state investment here in the area the creates an imbalance in the ratio of private sector to public sector employment to VCOMPENSATE for all of the point you made about tax exempt properties so your point is moot . the fact still remain that your district has hemmorraghed enrollment and escalated costs to the point that many see this project as just the latest boondoggle for those of us who have to foot the bill for this extravagance
About the only good things about the 'Burg are OFA, CHMC, and The OBGC. We'd better work hard to keep them operating in tiptop shape!
New York State is paying over 98 percent of the cost of this project because Ogdensburg has the highest percentage of tax exempt property for any small city in the state. In this case, the state aid formula for small city school renovation projects takes into account the city's very real limitations due to the high amount tax exempt property.
Since the state won't pay property taxes, it does provide extra funds to the school district for renovation projects.
the system is overbuilt and the excess space should have been rehabbed and and infrastructure deficiency addressesd and that would not have cost 57 million . There were 17 phases of construction in this system over the past 20 to 25 yrs .Fix roofs , windows , plumbing electrical if. Required and use what you have . To continue to add additional facilities when your enrollment has declined precipitously is irresponsible and whenever someone says that OTHERS in the state are paying for it .....well that is not only wrong but insulting to those of us who UNDERSTAND that WE are being hit for on the state level by this kind of thinking and we are also going to be hit for it. Locally for both capital and annual maintenance costs .
Sorry but the buck has to stop on excessive spending and it should begin here soon . Many have left tharen and others will as we sink under the burden of heavy schools taxation .
Ogdensburg doesn't even need a 'golden dome' anyway. What a waste.
It's pretty apparent that you've never seen any kind of investment in the future of Ogdensburg that you spported. You knock our prisons, you knock our psychiatric center, you want our colleges merged, you dismiss our schools and argue that we would be all better off if Ogdensburg sank into some putrid bog, I think you once suggested.
The reality is that you represent a bitter, unhappy element composed of our community's failures. Today you blame your own inability to achieve anything on your surroundings, dismissing and criticizing everything around you in a desperate attempt to deflect your own failures from your crummy attitude.
The rest of us have long since grasped that you'll never amount to anything. That's why no one pays attention to your suggestions.
I'm quite proud of o city school district for having the courage invest in our community's future. When I was a kid, Ogdensburg was the envy of NNY for having the most modern school with the newest features.
This project will give our nxt generation those same advantages while reducing operating costs for the rest of us by reducing energy costs, achieving efficiencies, allowing us to close two century old buildings, reducing staff and modernizing technology and operations.
Best of all, the $56 million investment in Ogdensburg will represent one of the largest public investments and construction projects in the city in almost 30 years, putting hundreds of construction workers and trades people to work.
Critics can prattle all they want, but city taxpayers will be better off for years to come since modern facilities are easier and cheaper to maintain than aging 50 year-old structures.
This money should have gone to more and better paid teachers, not to a useless behemoth of a sports arena. The Golden Dome is symbolic of the type of government waste we're trying to get rid of in this country.
10:43 is pretty self righteous and assumes that people oppose everything - NOT true we simply oppose non value added boondoggles and excessive intervention governmental facilities that serious detract from enhancing the QUALITY of Life here .
Read the OBPA consultant report in TODAY's Watertown paper, it was in the Advance too . IT is on target about these concerns .
Your skin is very thin , my point is we NEED more PRIVATE sector development here and FYI i would GLADLY support the developent of a merged Canton POTSDAM that would establish a FIFTH UNIVERSITY CENTER heer in the NORTH COUNTRY that would be the equal of SUNY Buffalo , Albany , Stony Brook or Binghamton. Such a UNICERSITY CENTER would retain over 10,0000 students , bring world class faculty and establish World Class Research facilities HERE to NNY . Moreove rit would OFFER degrees from the Assocciate to Doctoral levels and provide addition research and development incubator space ,
SO what i am opposed to is Very small thinking which is both wasteful by duplication of effort or UNDER- Utilization of resources and does little to enhance any growth potential here .
Bring new business in the private secrtor AND a WORLD CLASS PUBLIC UNIVERSITY Center here not the prisons and Perv factory and You WILL see REAL growth and expanding economic horizons . Can you imagine the spin off businesses that could develop from such a scenario . Your tax base would be positively affected .
So i'm NOT anti growth at all -- BUT lets quit doing things here that DO NOT WORK or detract from our greatest potential
That 10 :43 is what i'm all about.
FWIW my business and career were quite successful and provide me with a high quality of life that i'd like to see OTHERS achieve -- especially our next generation
No post on the mess with the housing program? Didn't we re-elect Nelson and elect Ashley and Hosmer in hopes of getting this cleaned up? They seem bent on perpetuating the problem for their own political (fiscal?) gain.
Today's good news is the police have arrested 3 for the murder of the 83 yr old on Ford St. Hopefully the case is airtight .
Housing Debacle
Plain and Simple .... Mr. Nelson when you sleep with dogs you get fleas. Since the election Mr. Nelson the count of fleas on your watches over the city has doubled.I am a supporter believe it or not. Mr. Morley, Mr Hosmer , Mr Ashley need help now as they helped you in the election. AS a norm Mr. Nelson takes care of Mr. Nelson only!!
With the arrest of the three rest assure they will be plea bargained dowqn to probably a manslaughter. Every drug dealer in Ogdensburg that ever dealt with these three is now in the crosshairs of the police. Time will tell..
Talked to a Sheriff Deputy today about Mr Moore driving his car through a house in Dekalb Jct. Seems he also will be putting a hurt on some local drug dealers and a couple of their suppliers in return for a reduced charge.. Seems he may have been high on some powdery substance along with drunk..
The school is completed... Lets move on..
How about Ashley , Morley and Hosmer changing their mind about CW Augustine.. We knew how bad he was why didnt they figure that out last meeting.. Jennifer Steveenson said he was a bad dude especially to our citiz3ens but hire him anyway.. Makes sense dosnt it... Nelson wanted him because we wont get some money for free stuff.. We may not get it anyway... Bill has someone else needing free housing and work done on theirs...
The school is completed... Lets move on..
How about Ashley , Morley and Hosmer changing their mind about CW Augustine.. We knew how bad he was why didnt they figure that out last meeting.. Jennifer Steveenson said he was a bad dude especially to our citiz3ens but hire him anyway.. Makes sense dosnt it... Nelson wanted him because we wont get some money for free stuff.. We may not get it anyway... Bill has someone else needing free housing and work done on theirs...
Well, Well, Well...The housing report comes out...Lots on Marty Murphy, Nelson, and Morley etc., but nothing on Sciorra the scape goat...Amazing...No wonder the population of Ogdensburg is now 9,000, when it was 14,000 only a few years ago.
Go back to sleep, Nick.
Hey, 1:39,
What housing report did you see that no one else did?
Typical of you Mike. You only read the Journal when you are featured in it.
It was only a matter of time. You have been driving drunk for years Dan Skamperle. You were arrested for DWI in Lisbon by the NYSP Friday Night. Your only mistake was that you drove out of the City. If you were stopped in the city the police would have just taken you home. No arrest again. Now lets see if you are in the Ogdensburg Journal's Police Blotter. Now that is a dream.
Wow Mike, you lucked out with Scamp getting arrested! Now no one will notice how the city is hurting for money for upkeep because you and Nelson spent $300,000 to get rid of the city manager, and hire a new one. According to your most recent quote, you said maybe the city cut too much. No! You, Nelson, and your toadie buddies spent the money throwing Sciorra under the bus, so Nelson could get re-elected. So, now you want to raise taxes to make up for it because the city looks like an abandoned weed patch. Have you no shame?
If you want stories about po-dunk marching bands, bush league athletes and raffles, read the Journal. If you want actual news, do what I did and cancel your Journal subscription and pick up the Watertown Daily Times.
Yeah Sciorra came in with balanced budgets in all six years he was city manager, and built up a fund balance. Now the city is talking about raising taxes just clean the streets. Me thinks our city fathers and mother were so busy playing politics, it turns out they fired the one guy who could keep the place running.
They should be booed off Ford Street during the Seaway Festival Parade.
The city could have gained some revenue if the sales tax had gone up, but Patty Richey (who Ogdensburg supported) blocked it again. It's hard to figure out how The 'Burg could have turned it's back on Aubertine after all he did for us, and support Richie who cares only about having her picture taken, Grover Norquist and The Tea Party.
Drunk driving...it's what I like to do...I like drunk driving with you-ou-ou, Skamp!
2:27: Easy to balance a budget when you provide no services. The city can't even clear brush on Crescent and even Dr. Drunko on the Council knows that! It's almost like getting into a time machine to find a city without curbside recycling...let alone trash pickup.
And the quality of the roads??? Thanks, Uncle Art for turning Ogdensburg into a paradise!!! Imagine how great things would be if his staff hadn't won the city those grant funds!
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