Cloverdale drainage project on track

CLOVERDALE -- It was all good news for the Cloverdale School Board as it met for its monthly meeting on Monday evening as it discussed the upcoming drainage project and the Dollars for Scholars program.

Project Manager Dan Sulkoske once again came before the board to discuss the upcoming improvement project, which will focus on fixing the corporation's drainage issues.

The project itself has been broken into five different components, including the base bid of the retention pond; alternate one being the sewer pipe extending from the pond along the east side of the building; alternate two, tying in the roof drain; alternate three providing the asphalt around the north, east and south ends of the building; and alternate four being liquidated damage.

Bidding for the project began March 3 and will continue until April 8 with Sulkoske giving his recommendation to the board at the next board meeting on April 14. However, within the coming weeks the board must decide when it would like the project to begin either in May, June or July.

"It's going to be inconvenient no matter what," Sulkoske explained. "It's going to be messy, it's going to tear things up. If we just do the pond, that's a pretty simple thing to do. If you do the rest of the work, the drainage pipe to the north, the downspouts and then the asphalt it's turning into a 60-90 day period. You really have total flexibility."

Sulkoske advised the board that if it decides to do the entire drainage project, he would wait until school was out. However, if the corporation chooses to just add a retention pond, the work can be isolated and can begin in May.

"We'll either run into it at the end of the year or the beginning of the year," Superintendent Carrie Milner said. "It's a catch 22. We have made accommodations before with various projects, that's not something we can't manage."

As of now, the board made no decision on when they'd like to see the project begin, but it is likely it will begin in June following graduation.

The board will be holding a special work session in the upcoming weeks to discuss the project schedule in more detail.

Vivian Whitaker of Cloverdale Community Dollars for Scholars also came before the board to discuss the most recent phone-a-thon, which was a massive success and will in turn provide several scholarships for local students.

Over a period of nine hours, 16 students participated in the phone-a-thon. A total of 290 people pledged $11,578 with $9,195 being collected so far. However, Whitaker believes that the corporation will receive nearly $12,800 when all is said and done.

"What a great time they had," Whitaker said with a smile. "You just see them light up. We really have such nice kids running around here. I know bad news outsells good news, but let's give our kids credit for what they do."

Whitaker kept the good news coming as she also informed the board that she recently a donor agreed to match the amount ($11,578) raised through the phone-a-thon in addition to the $3,335.57 that was received from the Putnam County Community Foundation Endowment Builder Grant, thus bringing the minimum total to $26,511.

"Making dreams come true for kids (that's what this is about)," Whitaker said. "Every little bit counts."

Milner also advised the board that the corporations 2011-13 audit was recently completed and overall, the corporation was in good standing.

"This is about the third (audit) one I've had in six years," Milner explained. "They found no significant concerns, but made a few suggestions."

Overall, the corporation had a good report, but like most schools in the county, it was advised that the corporation pay closer attention to ECA accounts not lining up.

"It's not hard to do, we just didn't know we needed to be doing that," Milner noted. "Most of the issues of concern were ECA issues that went way back to 2006-07. We had a good report and we're always glad they've found us in good standing."

Milner also informed the board that the corporation has written a proposal for the Owen County Community Foundation along with the Putnam County Community Foundation in hopes of staring a pre-school within the corporation for those in need.

"We hope to move forward by fall," Milner said. "That doesn't mean that we won't start something maybe this spring with just a few students, because we could. We recognize the need. We certainly have the interest, but we'd like to have a little more information before we move forward in the fall."

Milner also added that the preschool would provide scholarships to those students enrolled to prepare them for kindergarten.

More details on the new program will be provided within the coming months as Milner receives more information.

In other business:

* The board honored Hallie Spurrier, Kimberlee-Lane Bell and Andrew Howard as the March Students of the Month.

* The board also approved the following Traci Scott as 5th/8th-grade girls' track coach; Kathy Moore as 5th/8th-grade boys' track coach; Jarrod Duff as 7th/8th grade boys' baseball coach; Tori Maldanodo as 7th/8th grade girls' softball coach; Claire Graham as the varsity girls 'track coach; Andy Tyler as the varsity boys' track coach; Bryan Archer as the varsity baseball coach; Kurt Kyle as the junior varsity baseball coach; Brian Knapp as the varsity softball coach; Neil Jordan as the junior varsity softball coach and Doug Wokoun as the boys' golf coach.

* The board also approved the following volunteer positions, Tod Shedron as the middle school volunteer softball coach; Tim Powell and Mike Rossock as middle school boys' baseball assistants; Josh Flory and Chris Boling as high school boys' baseball assistants.