City-owned warehouse could become new Bristol Virginia school administration building

BRISTOL, Va. – A city-owned downtown warehouse will become the new school administration building, if proper funding is available for renovations.

At its meeting Monday, the School Board voted 4-0, with member Eric Clark absent, to accept a city offer to acquire the former Builder’s Supply-Central Warehouse and convert it into office space. The deal is contingent upon qualifying for a specific type of school construction funding that features zero percent interest.

“Had it not been for the city doing the research and finding out about that funding, we would likely never have known about it,” board Chairwoman Virginia Goodson said after the 3.5-hour meeting. “They did all the legwork.”

Board member Ronald Cameron made the motion to approve the acquisition and Tyrone Foster seconded his motion.

The School Board has been looking for new office space for years because its Oak Street facility doesn’t allow access to people with disabilities and lacks adequate space and parking.

City Manager Dewey Cashwell offered the mostly vacant Lee Street warehouse and later suggested exploring the qualified school construction bond – a type of federal stimulus money administered through each state and available at no interest.

At its meeting in May, the City Council unanimously agreed to borrow $3 million of that type of funding – on behalf of the school division – to help rehabilitate the mostly vacant warehouse space. The school system can’t borrow, but would be responsible for repaying the 17-year loan.

Mayor Jim Rector said he would support the borrowing only if the money was applied to the warehouse, not any other structure.

The school division had been negotiating a possible lease-purchase of the former Piggly Wiggly building on Euclid Avenue, but interest-free funding would save an estimated $1 million.

Goodson said it would likely be sometime this fall before the city gets confirmation of the funding and then the architectural work must be bid out.

“It may be December before we can start the process,” she said.

In other business, the board voted 4-1 to approve its $23.7 million fiscal 2010-11 budget that features no pay increase for employees.

“This is two years in a row where we’ve cut the budget. With $1.6 million last year and about $1 million this year, that’s about 10 percent of our total budget. We’ve been cut by the city, state and federal sources,” Cameron said. He also praised efforts to retain people and programs despite the cutbacks.

Clark cast the lone dissenting vote on the spending plan after chastising board members for not cutting their own pay.

“I’m disappointed in this board,” Clark said. “Last time I recommended a 25 percent pay cut. I got beat [election], but whether I won or lost, I would have recommended this. Your employees will be bringing home less money and you’re not taking one red cent out of your pockets.”

The new budget includes higher health insurance costs for employees and forcing newly hired employees to contribute 5 percent toward their state retirement program.

Goodson, who didn’t seek re-election, disagreed with Clark.

“People work very hard and deserve everything they get. There’s no way this compensates them for the amount of time they put in,” Goodson said.

Board members are paid $6,400 a year, the same as members of the City Council. The council, which holds first reading on its budget at tonight’s meeting, is expected to reduce its salaries and travel expenses for the next fiscal year.

While there will be no pay raise, the board approved a 1.5 percent bonus for all division employees to be paid later this month. It represents a one-time expenditure of $197,000 and will average between $500 and $700 an employee.

“A lot of it came from savings and most of the employees participated in programs to net those savings. And a lot of people had to do extra work this year because we didn’t replace employees last year,” Superintendent Ina Danko said.

Goodson said she was sorry the new budget didn’t include the step increases, but hoped the one-time bonus payment would make up for that.

dmcgee@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2532