After walking the halls of the vacated Gardiner Elementary School on Wednesday, the Kenston Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 on a schematic plan for turning the building and grounds into the district’s bus garage and offices.
The vote will allow the architectural firm handling the project to move forward with gathering contractor bids, with the intent of breaking ground on the project in the spring of 2016.
Earlier this week, the board passed legislation to move the garage from the district campus on Snyder Road to Gardiner, located at 9421 Bainbridge Road.
Based on input from previous meetings, the architectural and engineering firm Fanning Howey provided the board with two new conceptual drawings on Wednesday.
The first plan showed Gardiner remaining in its entirety. The second plan called for a portion of the school to be torn down, with the bus garage sitting behind the remaining portion.
BOE member William Timmons was the lone dissenter in the vote for the second plan.
At a board work session on Monday, Timmons was leaning toward tearing down part of the 40,220 square foot building. He changed his mind on Wednesday after the tour and hearing there would be little cost differential.
The fact that community groups are utilizing much of the building and paying rent totaling about $7,000 per year also swayed him, he said.
Steve Ciciretto, a local consultant for the project, attended Wednesday’s tour and meeting to present the plans and answer questions.
About 15 residents who are concerned about the project were also in attendance, at times getting into heated discussion with board members.
BOE member Beth Krause reminded the residents the move to Gardiner is no longer up for debate.
Before the board voted on the plan, she asked the residents in attendance which of the two plans on the table was more pleasing to them.
Bainbridge Road resident Jeff Ridenour said option two was better, but only if tall trees were planted as a buffer.
“If they’re going to do it, put up so much greenery that we don’t see it,” Ridenour said.
Some residents said they are not ready to accept that Gardiner is going to be the new location.
“How would you like to have this in your backyard with 40 to 60 buses running day and night?” asked Snyder Road resident Nancy Cain. “Why should we accept what you want? You’re not hearing us. We didn’t move out here to have 60 buses parked in our backyard.”
Bainbridge Road resident Frank Zemljic is concerned about water run-off and contamination.
“We all have wells around here,” he said. “This is horrible.”
Ciciretto said the Geauga County Soil and Water District will be monitoring water issues.
Residents continued to state that throughout the process, they have not been permitted to give enough input and that things were rushed.
Krause said there have been 12 public meetings where the relocation of the bus garage was discussed.
“We thought that we were communicating well and the perception is that we were not, so we will work on that,” she said.
BOE President Anne Randall reminded the public that every meeting that was held to discuss the issue was listed in the local newspapers and on the district website.
“Anyone who wanted to hear and discuss this has had plenty of opportunity,” Randall said.
Though Wednesday’s vote will allow the project to move forward, more specific plans will be presented and discussed in the months to come, Randall said.
Gardiner Elementary School closed in 2013 when the district restructured. It costs the district approximately $35,000 annually to maintain the building, according to Treasurer Candi Lukat.
No specific cost estimate has been presented for the schematic plan approved on Wednesday, but Lukat said $1.8 million has been allocated for the bus garage project.
The money will come from a $10 million bond issue, slated for capital improvements, that voters passed in May.