Island Dispatch, 1997-05-16

              Island DISPATCH £^%years -T "As the voice of Grand Island" ~l May 16,1997 24 Pages Vol. 54 No. 04 (716) 773-7676 650 (282-2381 ) FREE Pick-up & Delivery $20 OFF CLEANING With Customer Sign-Up WEEKLY OR HI WEEKLY ROUTE SERVICE |j g ' Official Newspaper for the Town of Grand Island ( & the Grand Island School District  Grand Island Home Show progressing quickly Only four more weeks are left until the Grand Island '97 Celebration of Homes is set to open June 13 and run until June 29. The Show of Homes will be at the Independence Square subdivision located off Stony Point Road near Bedell Road. Several homes built by the seven contractors are nearing completion. This year's sponsors are M & T Bank, 84 Lumber and the Grand U.B. STUDENT PLANNERS PRESENT THEIR FINAL TOWN CENTER CONCEPT PLANS- At Kaegebein School Wednesday night six conceptual plans were presented by teams of U.B. students who had participated in a semester long planning program in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Above is seen one of the six central area concepts fully built-out as it would appear 20 to 40 years from now combining a condensed mix of high density housing, shops, stores, civic and government buildings designed around a common architectural theme. For the complete story see page 7. (by Christopher Caile) BUILDING QUALITY HOMES TOGETHER—Builders and sponsors of the Celebration of Homes gathered to tour the newly constructed Independence Square. Pictured from left is Bob Weaver of Weaver Development, Mike Metzger of the Krehiel Association, Ron Grimm, builder, John W. Stickl, builder, Robert Minkiewicz of 84 Lumber, Paul Bandriwsky of M&T Bank, Susan Berger of the Grand Island Builders Association, Anthony Santarosa of CRS Construction, Austin Giambra of Austin Builders and Jack Hanna of Niagara Gutter. Golf applicants welcome by Christopher Caile On Monday, June 9 at River Oaks Gold Course the annual Empire State Grand Island Gold Classic will be held and there is still time to join. The event is sponsored by the Grand Island Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce and all proceeds will benefit the Veterans Park Recreation and Cultural Center. Corporate sponsor is the Empire State Pipeline Company. Larry Playfair is Honorary Chairman of the event. There will be an auction and door prizes. Also every golfer receives a complimentary gift, refreshments, lunch and dinner. There will be awards for male and female scratch champion, male and female callaway champion, corporate foursome champion and Mass Mutual redball champions. Prizes will also be awarded for closest to the pin on hole number 8, longest drive (male and female), closest to the line on hole number 10, and closest to the water on hole number 18. Call Joe Catherine, die General Chairman to enter at 632-1500. Trustees approve '97-98 budget By unanimous vote, the school board okayed a $29,449,296 budget for 1997-98 on Wednesday night. Trustees and administrators had met numerous times since March, including three nights this week as they struggled to reduce the total to a figure that would be acceptable to the public but not damage the educational program. . The amount, 1.02 % over last year's budget of $29.1 million, represents a property tax increase of $1.39/$ 1000 of assessed valuation, or a new tax rate of $25.02/$lOOO, or a 5.89 % increase. "The increase from one budget to the next is die lowest in at least 10 years," Superintendent Paul Fields told trustees. Commenting on the 5.89 % figure, Sue Gill said, "We've given taxpayers almost the lowest rate of increase in this area for five years. Now it's caught up with us." The original spending plan, presented in March, was for $32,565,262 and represented a $1.7 million gap between expenditures and revenue. That figure was painstakingly whittled down to $808,881, which is the amount that needs to be raised by tax levy. The district has lost almost $500,000 in state aid this year, coupled with a decrease of more than $1 million over the last four years. "It's not an expenditure issue, it's a loss of revenue issue," Board President Jeri Schopp said. Tuesday trustees had directed Superintendent Paul Fields to come up with additional savings. Wednesday he presented a list of reductions including $22,823 in equipment, $81,870 in contractual expense, $7350 in equipment repair, $10,260 in conference and travel in all departments and $75,863 in supplies for every area. "I believe we've reached the point where we're going to cripple program if we go any further," he told the board Wednesday night. He also said that the cuts would avoid reducing capital project funds. "I'm very concerned about cutting dollars there. I'm concerned about next year's budget." A capital project bond would provide revenue for future budgets because the district would receive state aid for its principal and interest payments. The capital project budget had been $600,000. Fields and Larry Schaller, business and finance director, recommended keeping $400,000 in the project and using $200,000 to help reduce the 1997--98 budget, but some board members had wanted to take an additional amount to help reduce the budget. Sue Gill successfully fought to have $11,000 retained in the field trip budget when she discovered that only enough had been left for sports-related trips. "I'm not down on sports but why is money retained for only one group? There are others, such as the music department, that need money for travel, also," she stated. Richard McCowan stated he was prepared to accept the budget. "We've considered it very carefully, it's a tight but rational plan." He added, "The state cut income tax revenue. The dollars have to be made up somewhere." "It's as good as it's going to get," commented Michael Dlugosz, referring to the tax rate. "We've taken many exhaustive steps to reduce it. Other cuts would affect programs which we've built up so carefully over the years." Schopp said this was the toughest budget in her eight years as a trustee. "I've never been prouder of the way we did it together. And we're all hurting together," she added. Tony Brindisi suggested getting community members involved. "We've had zero communication. Continued on page 3 Continued on page 13