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Record The Putnam County
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Volume 145 No. 25
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tightening the educational belt School board looks at ways to trim budget By Dixie Schroeder dschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
GRANVILLE — The Putnam County School District is looking to cut back its budget for the 2013-14 school year. At the Feb. 19 school board meeting, Superintendent Jay McCracken presented a review of the school budget as of Dec. 31, 2012. He noted
what percentage of the allotted funds had been spent. McCracken said that for the most part, the district was on the right track, however, the board should start to prepare now for next year’s budget. McCracken said a potential $200,000 could be trimmed from the operations and maintenance budget.
“The district would rather put that money toward the students and curriculum for now,” he said. Another place to possibly save money is the renegotiation of the district’s Ameren contract, since the current contract is up this school year. While not a certainty at this time, McCrack-
en said the elimination of one teacher and two paraprofessionals might be another way to save money. “No action will be taken on this tonight,” McCracken said. McCracken said the state owes the district $251,008 in back payments. “The state is so unpredictable,” he said. “We’re just being very, very careful.”
The district is anticipating deficit spending in Fiscal Year 2013 in the amount of $878,400. About $361,593 of that is from a loss in corporate personal property replacement tax, McCracken said. In other business, junior high science teacher John Slingsby was presented with an outstanding teacher award. This award was given to him because a parent at the junior high school had written a complimen-
tary letter about him and sent it to the board and McCracken. According to the letter, ‘Slingsby went above and beyond normal teacher actions” in watching out for the child of this parent. McCracken said he liked this idea so much, that the district will start to give these awards out to other staff members who are nominated by co-workers or parents.
See Budget Page 2
Does Hennepin need an investment policy? Bolin: ‘It’s a mistake’ By Dixie Schroeder dschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
HENNEPIN – Monetary issues were on the agenda for the village of Hennepin’s monthly meeting on Feb. 20. The village board’s financial committee brought Chris Cyr of Cyr Financial to make a presentation. Cyr told board members they need to start thinking about what kind of financial risk the board is willing to take when managing its investments. For example, certificates of deposits are a safer investment than a money market account, he said. “You don’t have to have an investment policy, but it might be a good idea,” Cyr said. Village Attorney Roger Bolin was not in favor of the idea of developing an investment policy for the village. While admitting he had never seen an investment policy for a village of Hennepin’s size, he said he thought having one would be a mistake. “It’s a mistake. The board has done pretty good over the years making the investments it has,” Bolin said. “About the first time you craft an investment policy that says you should or you should not, and you deviate — or it is believed you deviate from that written policy — there will be issues ... When you have a policy saying you will do ‘X’, ‘Y’, and ‘Z’ and then you don’t do it, someone will point a finger at you and ask you what the heck you are doing.”
See Hennepin Page 2
Putnam County Record photo/Ken Schroeder
‘We’re No. 1!’ The Putnam County Panthers celebrate Feb. 22 after winning the IHSA Henry 1A Regional after defeating the Marquette Academy Crusaders 50-39 at Henry-Senachwine High School. The Panthers’ sectional action begins at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in Putnam County’s R.M. Germano Gymnasium against Ridgeview Mustangs.
Granville board agrees to TIF plan By Ken Schroeder kschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
GRANVILLE – The Granville Village Board agreed to establish a tax increment financing (TIF) district with the assistance of Moran Development at its regular meeting Feb. 19.
That agreement was one of the main conditions for Dollar General to potentially come to Granville. At the meeting, Keith Moran of Moran Development reiterated the village’s qualifications for the TIF district. Of the 114 parcels in the pro-
posed district, 101 are developed with 13 parcels vacant. Of those 114 parcels, 80 of them have buildings, with more than half of them being more than 35 years old and/ or showing signs of deterioration. Four of those buildings are vacant, and the entire district has
inadequate utilities. The proposed TIF district runs along the north side of Route 71 from PC Foods to just past Hawthorne Street, dipping south of Route 71 just east of Elm Street for the proposed Dollar General site. From Route 71, the district will
encompass both sides of McCoy Street heading north to Main Street and will include the park and a parcel of land east of McCoy between Hopkins and Harrison streets. Moran also presented a business district development plan, which would result in a tax on goods
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Vol. 145 No. 25 One Section - 16 Pages The Putnam County
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sold at Dollar General. That tax would offset the cost of the village’s installation of water and sewer to the proposed site. The TIF district is currently projected for a time period of 23 years, during which the village
See TIF Page 2