By GLEN WERLING
Come one come all — if you live in the Northern Wells Schools District — and express your opinion about Ossian’s proposed housing Tax Increment Financing District.
Northern Wells Community Schools Board President Corey Krug issued the invitation to Northern Wells patrons Tuesday, wanting to hear from the community at the next school board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 13.
What he’s talking about is Roanoke Developer Kevan Biggs has purchased a little more than 66 acres immediately adjacent to the north edge of Ossian west of Ind. 1. The ground borders Ossian’s Rose Ann Heights subdivision.
Biggs wants to develop it into a housing subdivision. The Ossian Town Council has asked Biggs to upsize his original plans for sewage and water lines, and for a larger lift station than he originally planned for the subdivision, because the council wants to make the infrastructure large enough to accommodate future growth of Ossian to the north.
Biggs has agreed to the council’s requests if the council will agree to designate the area for the proposed subdivision a Tax Increment Financing district. The TIF will allow Biggs to recapture some of his investment in upsizing the utilities at his expense.
He has also made it clear that he will not undertake the development without the TIF as the TIF is needed to secure a Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative grant from the state. Any READI funds are contingent upon Ossian’s willingness to provide some form of economic incentive to the project.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Wells County Economic Development Executive Director — and Northern Wells Community Schools Board member — Chad Kline expressed his support for the TIF.
The holdup is that the school board has a say in whether or not the TIF is created. Fellow board members Corey Krug and Angie Topp appear to be leaning toward no as their answer to the TIF.
Krug expressed his belief that a developer should weigh the costs of developing a piece of property before purchasing it — and developers should assume all liabilities. A TIF subsidizes some of those liabilities with taxpayer cash, he stressed. He was not in support of doing that and neither, apparently, was Topp.
A representative from Ossian’s financial advisor BakerTilly provided the board with information regarding the potential net gain the school corporation will realize through the possible increase in student enrollment from the development and provided the board with information from a study BakerTilly put together showing how the potential increase in tuition support from the state will well outweigh any tax revenue potentially lost through declaring the area a TIF.
Ossian Council President Josh Barkley also explained that the town is requesting Biggs to do more than what he would have originally done when developing the property. The town is not subsidizing him but rather sees Biggs’ request as opportunity for future expansion and growth of the town beyond the proposed Biggs’ development, Barkley explained.
Kline pointed out that the school corporation, even with the TIF, will continue to receive the tax revenue it is already receiving from the bare ground. The only capture of tax revenue by the TIF will be for potential assessed value growth in the development, he added.
He further stressed that Biggs has to assume some additional costs with the development, including the extension of a road to the west for ingress into the subdivision opposite to where Davis Road currently T-intersects. That additional cost will be required because the county now requires two ingress and egress points to a subdivision. The second entrance and exit will be the current Dyar Drive.
Kline again pointed to the potential for tuition support gained to outstrip anything that might have been gained in just tax revenue from the development — and the bare ground will stay bare ground if the TIF is not granted, so really the only thing the school corporation will be losing is the potential for student population growth by denying the TIF.
Topp was skeptical of the initial claims for tuition revenue since the first part of the development will feature 29 houses and 22 villas. The villas, she pointed out, will be occupied by people who no longer have children living at home or who have never had children. Therefore, she believed, the figures being presented by BakerTilly were skewed as they were based on an average of at least one half child per housing unit (a rather amusing, but statistically correct number).
Board member Gene Donaghy, who also has a seat representing the school board on the Ossian Redevelopment Commission, noted that the villas will attract older couples in Ossian to stay in Ossian. Those same couples will sell their homes opening the tight Ossian housing market for younger families, Donaghy believed.
The discussion continued for some time before Krug observed that Tuesday night’s discussion of the TIF was just that — discussion only — with the potential for a vote at the board’s December meeting
In other business, the board members:
• Approved leave for the following personnel: Jennifer Hogan, Ossian Elementary special education teacher; Paul Grote, high school English teacher; Kelly Putt, middle school teaching assistant; Emily Gunsett, high school English teacher; Alesia Hoffman, custodian; Kandi Riley middle school eighth grade science teacher; Kellyn Bell, Ossian Elementary first grade teacher and Steve Clark, school bus driver.
• Accepted the resignations of Ashley Bowling and Breana Foreman as Lancaster Central Elementary teaching assistants.
• Hired Andrew Stuck as high school Spanish teacher.
• Approved an overnight trip by the high school girls basketball team to the Plymouth High School holiday tournament Dec. 27-28.
• Accepted a $350 donation from Park Community Church’s Food Fight program for students who do not qualify for free or reduced lunch but who, for whatever reason, are unable to pay any particular day for lunch.
• Adopted the schedule of meeting dates and times. The board will, for the most part, continue to meet the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at the central office in 2023. There are exceptions. March and December will see meetings held on only the second Tuesday of those months to avoid conflicts with spring and winter breaks.
The board will also hold meetings followed by strategic planning meetings at Norwell High School Jan. 24, Feb. 28, April 25, Aug. 22, Sept. 26, and Oct. 24 in 2023. The dates and meeting locations may be subject to change as Tuesday night’s meeting was originally scheduled to be held at the central office but the board moved the location to the former maintenance building at the Norwell school complex to permit the school board members to hold a work session touring the new middle school construction an hour prior to the start of the regular meeting.
• Signed an interim special education services contract with Donna Cortright, who will be providing special education services to Lancaster.
In addition to touring the NMS building construction Tuesday, the board members watched a one-minute video presented by construction project manager Kent Gilliom showing the progress made on the school building over the past two weeks.
glenw@news-banner.com
