Timmy recommends approval of turf maintenance agreement UPDATED

Instead of a Board Discussion meeting and a separate Board Regular meeting, the school board has only one meeting in July. This Monday, July 21, the school board will be holding the combined meeting. The agenda has been posted here.

It appears to me that the school district is also guilty of overtaxing us. According to the agenda:

Designation of Fund Balance – Board Policy sets the year end fund balance at 6% of the expenditure budget and designates the remaining fund balance to the Capital Projects Fund, the Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) Reserve or to other purposes as determined by the Board. The 2014-15 Budget utilizes $750,000 of the fund balance to mitigate the need for a tax increase. Beyond that, there remains approximately $4.3 million to be designated. One proposal would be to transfer $3 million to the Capital Projects Fund and $1 million to the OPEB reserve leaving $300,000 to be determined at a later point once the audit of the 2013-14 Fiscal Year is complete and any additional funds to be transferred can be finalized. The superintendent recommends approval of this action.

Designation of Fund Balance – RESOLVED, That the Board approves the transfer of $3 million from the designated General Fund - Fund Balance to the Capital Projects Fund and $1 million to the OPEB reserve.

This month, the school board will be awarding the contract for the $74,000 trophy case to Olan Wood Products in the amount of $52,000 as the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications.

What we have all been waiting for is the discussion of the Artificial Turf Maintenance Agreement between the Municipality and the School District.

Artificial Turf Maintenance Agreement – The Municipality is requesting that the work we do to help maintain their current fields now be changed to help maintain their new turf field since we already own the equipment to do the maintenance. Since this is no additional cost to the District and we will continue to be able to use their fields at no cost, I am recommending approval of this agreement.

Artificial Turf Maintenance Agreement: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the agreement with the Municipality for maintenance of their turf field and authorizes the Superintendent to sign the agreement.

I am curious as to how this is going to work with the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA does not recognize Municipal Fields as approved work sites. According to the Zipper Clause, the Association has to agree to any changes with the District.

Finally, the change orders for July total $242,696 bringing the total to $3,658,409.65.

Change Orders for High School Renovation Project – Change orders for Board approval for the month of July totaling $242,696 have been reviewed by the architect, PJ Dick and the District administration:
a. GC-103-235 to Nello for $158,947 for masonry, doors, steel, beams, window blocking, fire rating, building dimensional discrepancy, stairs, handrails, cooling towers and slab changes,
b. PL-32-236 to Vrabel for $34,531 for storm and sanitary changes and credits for drains and piping,
c. EL-63-237 to Farfield for $42,132 for lighting modifications, cabling, sound system devices, speaker clusters in auditorium, heat detectors and power changes, and
d. ME-25-238 to McKamish for $11,086 for return grills and duct modifications. 

Update July 18, 2014  6:17 PM Further clarification concerning School District field maintenance of Municipal fields per Timmy's recommendation.

From: Tom Kelley [mailto:tkelley@mtlebanon.org]
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 3:15 PM
To: Nick M.
Subject: Re: fields 

No at this time we do all the work on our fields and the school district maintains their own. Once the synthetic turf is placed at the Wildcat and Middle field area then the school district will maintain the field surface (clean and groom the synthetic turf). We will continue to maintain all of our grass fields with no help from the school district.

On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 2:50 PM, Nick M. wrote:

Hi Tom, 

Can you please clarify something for me. 

Is the school district currently doing any maintenance work on any municipal fields? 

The reason I ask is because in the school board agenda for next Monday it states, 

“The Municipality is requesting that the work we do to help maintain their current fields now be changed to help maintain their new turf field since we already own the equipment to do the maintenance.” 

What work is the school district already doing to help maintain their (municipal) current fields. 

Can you please clarify this for me. 

Thank you Tom, 

Nick M.

We want our money back

Did you know that the municipality is over taxing us? Want proof? Here is the agenda for Tuesday's commission discussion session.


Open Discussion Session (Room C)
6:20 P.M.
1. Unassigned fund balance:
     a. Tentative list of designations
     b. Date for capital investment discussion hearing – July 22, 2013

Last year, we had spent $1.3 million in unassigned funds.  This year, we have available for more indiscriminate spending by the commissioners, approximately $840,000. That represents 2.39% of extra money in its cash reserves, after the normal 10% held in reserves.The vultures are circling. 

What do the commissioners want to do with that money? See my post, Mt. Lebanon weighs surplus spending

In the Trib article, nothing was mentioned about what our president, Matt Kluck wants. He has been advocating all along to give the money back to the people.

Funny, I don't see anything for Outreach, or any other drug programs.

In fact, at the February budget retreat, Kelly Fraasch was the only commissioner concerned about a drug task force.  Remember how I was the only one covering that retreat? That was when the PIO was writing about Noah's Ark on Facebook. Here are the commissioners' priorities from that February budget retreat. 

Hey, Commissioners? How about a reduction in our taxes? Do you have that much money that you need the school district's help to spend our money? We all know that the Sports Advisory Board (SAB) will want turf SOMEWHERE in Mt. Lebanon.  As The Trib reported in my July 1 post:

School board President Elaine Cappucci said the district has no plans to put turf on any fields. “So that would be a new expense. Nobody from the commission has approached us about the proposal. … I can't tell you what the board would feel about it.”

My guess is that the SAB, a.k.a., Turf Board will come back to turfing Middle and Wildcat Fields again.  The date for the hearing is July 22, 2013.

Get in line, SAB. You will be up against the deer cullers, the Outreach people, and the people like me who just want the commissioners to stop overtaxing us, and give us our money back.

So do we!

Bethel Park must 'Just Say No'

"Just Say No" has been a popular phrase to keep young people away from using drugs.

However, this phrase is also a very appropriate response to encourage the Bethel Park School Board to "Just Say No" to any further spending of our taxpayer dollars.

As a matter of fact, it is crucial that the board cut out some of the spending now, in order to balance the present budget, which is in its preliminary stage for 2011-2012.

The projected revenue for this budget is $72,991,459.00, but the projected expenditures total $74,303,447.00. Simple subtraction tells us that this budget is about $1.3M in the red.

There is no money in our Keystone State to reimburse Bethel Park schools or any other school district in Pennsylvania. Bethel Park's loss from state reimbursement is over a million dollars.

If the former governor and administration could have "just said no" to spending, the forecast would not have been so bleak.

Overtaxation ruins a nation. In Bethel Park, "Just Say No."

A. Potocar

http://www.thealmanac.net/alm/story10/03-23-2011-letter-BP-Potocar