Several members of ABATE District 13 of Nebraska attended Monday nights Alliance Board of Education meeting. The group recently held an event and raised $400, which they donated to the Alliance “Save the Track” fund. ABATE members Bruce Trussell, Calvin Cox and Laura Bishop, (L-R below) presented the donation to Superintendent Dr. Troy Unzicker. This puts the “Save the Track” fund at $300,402.00.
The Board was scheduled to take action to approve the contract with Nemaha Sports Construction of Lincoln for the Track project. Dr. Unzicker reported the estimated costs of the project came in much higher than expected. Originally the estimated cost was around $600,000, but the bid came in at just over $825,000. Nemaha Sports said the reason for the higher costs was the price of concrete was double the cost compared to other projects the company has done. After hearing the estimates, several options were discussed. Dr. Unzicker reported the Track committee has raised just over $300,000 at this time, to go towards the project, but fundraising efforts have slowed down in recent weeks. Dr. Unzicker reported that the District is paying off a $1.25 million dollar general fund debt and is still waiting for the Legislature and Governor to approve a budget which will determine the amount of School State Aid. Dr. Unzicker says he estimates the District will lose between $400,000 to $600,000 in State Aid for next school year. While these projections seem gloomy, Dr. Unzicker said on the positive side, the District has done a good job, over the last 4 years, of relieving the debt and building a small reserve. Dr. Unzicker said with paying off the debt, several other building and grounds projects and the track project, he would not like the District to incur any additional debt, but told the Board there are options, including slowing down the debt repayment, since it is ahead of schedule and at the lowest interest rate.
Several Board members suggested looking into other options for concrete and also exploring the cost of an asphalt base track. Board members stated originally they supported the concrete base track due to the longer life expectancy, which was worth the extra cost, now with the higher estimated costs, the Board says that may not be the best option. Dr. Unzicker said he would look into those suggestions, but cautioned that this will slow things down and the district may need to re-bid the project since Nemaha specializes in building post tension concrete tracks. The availability of asphalt is also an issue. Dr. Unzicker also said the condition of the track is getting worse with the 2 inside lanes becoming almost unusable and there are large cracks across the entire track at numerous spots.
After more discussion, the Board determined they would need to study things more and define their priorities regarding the district debt, other building projects and the track. The board elected to table action on the Nemaha contract until further information is available.