Lebanon — The renovation at Lebanon High School is suddenly about much more than updating a school facility — it’s now a part of building the community, officials announced Monday evening.
The city of Lebanon, via a commitment from the Lebanon Redevelopment Commission and Lebanon Community School Corporation Monday formally entered into an interlocal agreement that allows for the 2,000-square-foot community center already planned for LHS to be expanded to 9,600 square feet. The commission agreed to earmark $500,000 over the next three years to fund its part of a new, state-of-the art facility that can be used for high school classes and projects, meetings between Purdue University and other college researchers and business conferences of up to 700 people.
City funds for its portion of the project are to come from the Lebanon Business Park Tax Increment Financing district. A TIF district is an area where a short-term tax break is given to a business or project developing within the district. As the tax break decreases, the community gains the extra tax revenue.
“It will not raise taxes in any way,” Lebanon Mayor Huck Lewis said. “The business park is paying for it.”
School funds for its portion of the project were already included in the $40 million school building/renovation project approved for Lebanon Community School Corporation in a referendum last fall.
Architects and designers working on the school project have already worked on plans for the larger facility, so the city’s contribution will cover only the “hard costs” of the additional construction.
LCSC Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor said the concept had begun to form even before the school’s building project was a reality.
“The schools are in a unique position to join with the community,” Taylor said during the announcement at the Lebanon Municipal Building. “We really had the concept throughout the process of how to enhance our partnership with the community.”
Taylor said the new community room at the high school, as originally planned, was going to be “rather small,” but he and Mayor Lewis had also been having conversations about how they might form a partnership to create a larger space with more uses.
The expanded community room/conference facility will be all-new construction on the west side of the existing school building. It will have access to facilities for catering, and can be configured to seat 700 in an auditorium-type setting, 400 at tables, or can be broken into three different meeting rooms and a conference room. Restroom facilities are to be located across the hall from the center, and the area can be shut off from the main school building. It will also have its own parking area.
For more of the story, see Wednesday’s Lebanon Reporter.
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