I know this will fall on deaf ears for sure.

This letter to the editor will just be ignored, but I hope that some day, the School Board will realize what we have been saying for two years. I don't want to see a letter like this in the Almanac about the cost of our high school renovation.

Cost of Bethel school is overwhelming

There is an old saying...the glass is half full or half empty.

Of course, we all want to be optimistic about the new high school construction...but the glass is getting too full and overflowing with higher and higher costs, which are drowning us, something none of us wanted.

The original bid for the new building was about $78M. Then, some things were upgraded, such as floors to be terrazzo instead of linoleum, etc. Slowly the new cost became $81M, and we were told by some board members that it would be not a dime over $81M. What worthless assurance that was because at the writing of this article, the new figure is now $91M...with no end in sight.

The administration now tells us that there is $6M dollars left over and that we are under budget. How can that be, when $81M is now $91M? Aren't the figures being confused?

A bond issue was taken out for about $93M (and that was excessive for a $78M bid). Then added to that were several millions more of our hard earned taxpayers' dollars, leftover, after a previous bond issue was satisfied. These dollars should have been returned to us taxpayers by lowering the millage rate, but it was not. Therefore, the funds available for this project grew to about $98M dollars.

A lot of money had to be used to correct some really huge problems on the site upon which the new building now sits. The administration/school board were warned many times about the excessive waters under the ground and that it was very unsuitable as a construction site for the new high school, but they ignored it. As a result, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in trying to correct this problem, such as buying limestone to dry up the dirt, as well as installing a manhole inside the building (which is a rarity) that is equipped with a sump pump for water drainage. All of this added change order after change order, which seems to have been a regular pattern throughout this construction project.

In addition to all of this, and yet to come, is the most difficult chore of all...the demolition of the campus style buildings, which can be full of surprises. Since those buildings have been sitting there for many decades, no one will predict what can happen. How many more change orders will result?

To attend these monthly board meetings and witness these soaring costs of the new Bethel Park High School is indeed frustrating, as well as frightening. For many, it has been difficult to accept especially when the consent of the people, via a referendum vote, was never allowed to occur. So, now we ask, if the sump pump fails and the tax dollars dry up...then what?

Nita Potocar

Bethel Park