JEROMESVILLE (December 3, 2019)--Hillsdale Local Schools has received the valuation from the Ohio Department of Taxation for the Rover Pipeline. It has come in extremely high, more than double what the district had promoted in its November 2019 renewal levies literature of $5 million dollars annually.
Due to this extremely high amount being much greater than what Rover provided to the ODT, and consequently what the school district projected, Rover has chosen to appeal that figure.
With the appeal, Rover would pay the undisputed amount for the current tax bill, with an adjustment on future bills for any differences if necessary.
“We never anticipated this very large number,” Superintendent Steve Dickerson said. “I was thinking in my heart it would come in over $6 million. I was purposefully conservative in the figure we put out there for the levies. I never envisioned it coming in so much higher.”
The district has conservatively moved forward with the schematic design process of a new preK-12 facility project that the school is planning to build with the Rover funds.
The schematic design phase has been completed. The CMR is currently calculating the cost of the project based on that design. Then the schematic design and cost estimate will be reevaluated once the district knows the amount they'll receive from Rover.
Otherwise, all other work will be put on hold until the Rover figure is known.
The scope of the work that has been done for the project has a 20-year loan payoff in mind, specifically because Rover has contracts in place for that duration.
