JEROMESVILLE – More than 100 people gathered at Hillsdale High School Tuesday to hear about the district’s plan to build a new K-12 school using revenue from the Rover Pipeline.
Superintendent Steve Dickerson told the crowd he believes Hillsdale is likely to see as much as $4 to $6 million in new tax revenue in 2019 from the pipeline, based on his conversations with experts in the legal field and with representatives of financial institutions.
That revenue would taper off over the years as the pipeline’s value decreases. But even 30 years down the road, he said, the district should be receiving $800,000 a year.
The numbers are consistent with projections for what other districts in the state are expected to receive from the Nexus Pipeline project, Dickerson said.
“For instance, in the Edison district, Nexus says they’re going to get $3.6 million the first year, the second year $3.5. There is a reduction factor with it,” Dickerson said. “But using what Nexus put out and what Rover put out as the estimated taxes that they would be paying, and then looking at how many miles of pipeline are in our district, and the compressor station and so forth, we are getting rough figures on what that income could be.”
A fact sheet from Rover Pipeline shows the company expects to pay $135 million in taxes in the first year. Hillsdale will have 20 miles of pipeline in its district once the second of the two parallel pipelines is complete. The district also has a new compressor station within its boundaries.
Dickerson believes the district could pay off a $35 million construction project in 16 years or less, without raising taxes. More concrete numbers will be available in the fall, he said, as the Ohio Department of Taxation will provide a preliminary assessment certificate by Oct. 1.
Dickerson said while the district’s tax millage is 47 mills, its effective millage is close to the 20 mill floor, the minimum local taxation the state requires for all districts.
So if Hillsdale would roll back taxes as a result of the new revenue, he said, “you would see very little (tax) decrease, but we’d lose over 40 percent of the Rover dollars.”
Other arguments for the new construction, Dickerson said, include the age and condition of the district’s buildings, safety concerns due to factors like building layout and technology constraints in the old buildings.
Dickerson said the state reviewed Hillsdale’s buildings in 2008 and determined that renovating all three buildings to state standards would cost at least three quarters of the cost of new construction.
Following an approximately 30-minute presentation, Dickerson spent the second half of the meeting fielding audience questions.
Ashland County Commissioner and former Hayesville mayor Jim Justice asked what would happen to the old buildings after a new facility is constructed.
Dickerson said while the plan would ultimately be determined by a facility committee based on community feedback, his own recommendation would be to close the elementary and middle school buildings. Dickerson would like to re-purpose the high school, possibly continuing to use it as an administrative office, a community event space and a storage space.
Other community members questioned whether the district should slow down to make sure the anticipated money will really come through and whether the district should accept state money for the project, something Dickerson has said the district may not do.
Dickerson said he wants to be able to jump on the construction project quickly to open the new building as early as 2021-2022 or 2022-2023. He said he is still looking into the pros and cons of accepting state funding, but he believes the added costs and burdens of an Ohio Facilities Construction Commission project may outweigh the benefits.
The district plans to send out a mailing about the plan and to conduct a community survey to receive more input on how to proceed.
Dickerson said he welcomes questions about and feedback on the plan, and he would be happy to meet with groups about their ideas or concerns. He can be reached at 419-368-8501.
