TIF expansion denied

FORT RECOVERY — The tax increment financing (TIF) related to the expansion of a poultry operation will remain at 75 percent.

Fort Recovery School Board on Thursday decided against extending the TIF to 100 percent.

The board also decided to increase pay for substitute teachers and got an update on the track resurfacing project.

Recovery Township had asked the school board for a TIF exemption for an Erastus-Durbin Road improvement project in connection with an expansion at Acheson Poultry. The exemption would have allowed 100 percent of new tax dollars, instead of the standard 75 percent, from the expansion to be put toward the road work.

The board had tabled the issue at its July meeting in order to seek more information.

Board members Greg LeFevre, Jose Faller, Mitch Ervin, Mike Grube and Nick Wehrkamp voted against the exemption Thursday, meaning the TIF will remain at 75 percent.

High school principal Bill Overla gave another update about the track resurfacing project being handled by All American Tracks. The work had originally been scheduled for early July, but was delayed when problems with the base of the track were discovered after the old surface was removed.

The base has since been repaired by Mercer Asphalt & Sealcoat, and All American Tracks is scheduled to begin the resurfacing Saturday.

The board also approved a $10 increase in the pay rate for substitute teachers to $90 per day. 

The last pay increase for substitutes — to $80 from the previous $75 — was in December 2013.

In other business, the board:

•Approved the following: granting permission to superintendent Larry Brown to employ substitute teachers on an as-needed basis; Lisa Braun as a substitute teacher; Dawn Willmann, Jason Barhorst, Christine Diller and Dean Sanders as van drivers; bus routes for the 2019-20 school year; designating seven $250,000 certificates of deposit as inactive until their respective maturity dates; a resolution to not provide career-technical education to seventh and eighth graders; participation in the Southwestern Ohio Educational Purchasing Council; allowing seniors to drive themselves to classes at Tri-Star in Celina; the district’s gifted education policy; appointing Brown as the district’s representative for the Mercer/Auglaize Benefit Trust; reimbursing Brown for Focus 3 training related to the district’s R Factor initiative; an amendment to the preschool salary schedule; and payment of $8,666.90 to Dayton Power and Light.

•Accepted the resignation of Julie Schlater as National Honor Society advisor.

•OK’d a two-year contract for cafeteria manager Katie Timmerman and one-year contracts for non-teaching employees Monika Johnson, Melinda Dues, Courtney Westgerdes, Elizabeth Barga and Stacy Laux. Also approved were several supplemental contracts, including to retain baseball coach Jerry Kaup and softball coach Esther Stephen for the 2019-20 school year and naming Reid Knuth as high school drama advisor and head of the elementary vocal music programs, Patty Lefeld as National Honor Society advisor, Charlie Vasey as senior class advisor and Tracy Evers-Westgerdes as middle school drama advisor.

•Accepted a donation of $15,000 from the Cooper Family Foundation for Fort Recovery FFA.

•Heard from elementary school principal Kelli Thobe that a new slide and other playground equipment will be installed this month in the third, fourth and fifth grade playground. The elementary school will also have an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 19.