CCSD Plans Meetings For Rison, Kingsland

RISON - Superintendent Davy King and the Cleveland County School Board held their first community meeting on the proposed 6-mill tax increase to build a new gym Monday night at New Edinburg.King also announced that additional community meetings on the millage will be held at 7 p.m.  Monday, Oct. 20, at the Rison School campus, and at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, at the Kingsland School auditorium.About 50 people gathered at the New Edinburg Community Center Monday night to hear a presentation from King about the millage plus see artist renderings of the proposed gym. School board president Harrell Wilson along with board members Sheila Towery, Helen Grice, Nick Bennett and Kelly Taylor attended as well. “I thought it was a good meeting with a lot of good questions that needed to be answered,” King said Tuesday after the meeting. Overall, he said he felt it was “very productive.”One of the questions was why does the school district need 6 mills? King explained that was the amount needed to pay for the proposed $12 million project.In meeting with the school board in August, architect Steve Elliott estimated it would cost about $400 per square foot to build the gym, and since the proposed structure covers about 25,434 square feet, the projected cost would be about $12 million.Elliott’s original plan was for a 1,500 seat gym, but he reduced it to 1,200 seats. Plans are to build it like a traditional gym where fans enter the grandstands from the floor level rather than from the top that is typical for an arena style facility.Plans are to have gym be backed up to the football field so the concession stand and restrooms could be shared with the football stadium.Jason Holsclaw with Stephens, Inc., the district’s financial adviser, said 1 mill equates to about a $20 increase in annual taxes for every $100,000 in assessed property value. Therefore, a 6-mill increase for someone with property assess...