Lockport NY

LUSJ reporting:

Tonight’s meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Lockport High School auditorium, 250 Lincoln Ave. The meeting was moved from the district offices on Beattie Avenue, the regular meeting place for the board in anticipation for a large turnout tonight, similar to the past couple of meetings, when supporters of a few schools have shown up — most notably from John Pound and DeWitt Clinton elementary schools.

Last week, district officials said the meeting had been moved to North Park Middle School before announcing the meeting had been moved again.

To help offset the financial hardships Lockport has to face with the 2010-11 budget, the district said last week it would be closing an elementary school and re-purposing another. The move is expected to save about $1.2 million. Carbone said Tuesday she has met with the staffs of the schools that could be affected if the budget picture doesn’t change.

 Not sure if I am going to be able to make it. If anyone else does please post up afterward.

Both the Buffalo News and the LUSJ have reported an update on the school budget cutting process.

Lockport City Schools will close an elementary school and “re-purpose” another, Superintendent Terry Ann Carbone said Wednesday. The schools are just two of the many cuts the district will have to make in order to create a budget in these economic times, Carbone said. Other cuts include the reduction of 40 positions — including 23 layoffs — districtwide, the elimination of summer school, reductions in materials and supplies, the loss of the Early Start and summer reading programs, as well as after-school programs....

...Even with $4 million in cuts laid out, the district may need to raise its tax levy by as much as 10 percent to plug a $7.9 million hole. The district faces a $3.9 million cut in state aid as rollover operating costs jump by $4 million....

The big question that remains to be asked and reported on is what exactly makes up the $4 million increase in operating costs? Why can they not be paused like has been done in the private sector to maintain viability? And if the budget is so dire why are they adding a pre-K next year? What are the biggest cost centers? What will have the biggest effect on closing the gap?  Closing the schools is saving a wopping 1.3% of the the 77 million (soon to be 81 million?) budget or 15% of the needed reduction.

This is painful,” Carbone said. “It doesn’t help anybody. But if someone else out in the community has an idea of how to come up with $4 million, I would be glad to entertain any ideas.”...


...The rest of the cuts Carbone recommended Wednesday:
• Of 40 positions minimum that must be eliminated, 14 will be retirements. The rest will come from layoffs, and the figure of 40 will swell as the budget is finalized.
• The district will end its summer school program for all grade levels, requiring students to cover their own costs for BOCES summer programs in Niagara Falls or Medina.
• After-school and academic intervention programs for K through grade 8 and summer reading offerings for all grade levels will be eliminated.
• Materials and supplies will be reduced by 30 percent.
• E-mails sent by the administration to elementary library media specialists indicate those five positions will be cut. Other nonmandated programs, including art and music, may also face cuts.
The School Board may take action on the budget at Wednesday’s meeting. With a large turnout expected, the meeting has been moved to North Park Middle School’s auditorium, where the public portion is scheduled for 7 p. m

Also, word is no meetings yet with the city on plausible reuses though they are expected in the future. The feasibility of reusing the structure should be a factor in the closure though it seems it may not be.

The Lockport School District reveals which school it is looking to close tomorrow. Over the weekend I had planned on doing some research on school reuse but never really got around to it. An internet search revealed a surprisingly large amount of instances of municipalities trying to firgure out what to do with old schools.

A few are:
Portland Maine
Washington DC
Kasson City

A lot of them reference reuse studies. I hope the school district and the city have something lined up for discussion of the fate of the closed building. My initial thoughts are an old school in a real estate market such as Lockport will most likley hold a negative net worth for any use beyond a school. While it would be nice for the district to see some money from the transaction the greater gain, (or loss) in worth will be experienced by the neighborhood around the structure. The city and district should see that something is set up to promote a reuse. A boarded building or if demoed, an empty lot will most likely see a run similar to the 30yr one of the South Block. But what should the reuse be?

If they close Washington Hunt, I'd be happy if the hospital took responsibility for it and its upkeep. Use it for future expansion of outpatient services or for 3rd party medical office space.

If they close John Pound, I'd be happy if the city were to work with a local developer to transition the structure to residential. Yahoo, Inlighten, and other companies will most likely contain a demographic of people looking for newer up to date loft-type living. It is one block from S. Transit and 3 blocks from Main. As far as I know the city (nor the town) can not offer anything like that. An example from Buffalo is here.

Is Charlotte Cross considered a "school" in this discussion? If closed I could see it as the new location of the Lockport Police Dept. It has been known that the police are looking for a space of their own (like a portion of the old Harrison plant) in light of the space squeeze going on at city hall. Why not adapt an old school on a main city street? They could also keep the gym open for some youth programs.

I tried to stick to something that would fulfill an existing need without adding new cost loads (such as stand alone community centers, etc.) Any other initial thoughts out there?

We shall see what the city or district has to say tomorrow night.

LUSJ reporting no decision yet.
Buffalo News reporting possible two schools could be closed

 

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LUSJ reported that the Lockport School District is considering closing one of the neighborhood elementary schools due to state budget cutbacks and budget increases.

In light of hard financial times and a state budget crisis, Lockport City Schools will be making some difficult cuts that could result in the closing of an elementary school.
Superintendent Terry Ann Carbone told the Board of Education on Wednesday that the district is facing some difficult decisions with the 2010-11 school year budget. Under Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget, Lockport is facing a cut of $3.9 million in state aid, on top of $4 million in increased costs.
“That translates to a seven-digit number in cuts — that’s in the millions,” Carbone said. “This is not an area where we want to overburden taxpayers. We also want to maintain, as much as possible, the quality programs for the youth of this community. Balancing that is going to be difficult — painful, quite frankly.”
Carbone shared some possible cuts to ease the burden, including closing one of the district’s seven elementary schools....

I hate to see one have to close as I love the neighborhood aspect of the elementary schools. Has anyone heard anything about which elementary school it may be?

The Buffalo News is reporting that Gambino Ford on Rt 78 in the town of Lockport is closing.

Gambino Ford in the Town of Lockport is closing, under a program Ford Motor Co. is using to consolidate its dealer network. The dealership, located at 6157 S. Transit Road, will probably close its doors next week, owner Patrick Gambino said Tuesday. “The offer was on the table for any dealer in the metro [Buffalo] area to raise his hand,” Gambino said. “They’d like to close more.” However, Gambino said the Ford incentives to sell a dealership are now off the table. Other area Ford dealers bought out the Gambino dealership, Ford corporate spokeswoman Marisa Bradley said. The terms were not disclosed.

Mr. Gambino has taken a Ford buyout offer under its dealership consolidation plan. For example Ford has 4,000 dealerships to Toyota's 1,000. Sales profits spread around 4X the number of dealers make for weaker dealers overall. Especially in today's world of consolidation and high volume - low per piece profit. I always expected some other Ford dealer would go first, like the one up by 78 and 104 since Lockport is a more central location. But I also thought Gambino could be one of them since the # of vehicles in the lot had drastically reduced since the late 90's/early 00's.

Gambino was the first dealer I ever noticed to give little tag lines in their adds. "...Come on down. Hi mom." At least 10 years before Mr. Fucillo brought his "Huuuuuugggggggeeeeea" to this part of the state. I bought my first vehicle from Gambino back in 1998 and it was my first experience in Lockport (living in Lancaster at the time). Heading to a mountain bike ride I swung in to look at a vehicle in the used lot. That '97 F150 4x4 gave me 155k miles before I sold it due to gas prices and some parts starting to wear out. 5 days of price dickering gave me an OK deal for my first ever vehicle loan. I miss that truck ;)

UPDATE: 01-06-09

Ki-Po, which operated on the old Gambino used car lot next door had recently cleared the lot out. The Buffalo News is reporting that Ki=Po has not closed the location and will decide to either move used vehicle operations back there, or open a yet to be named new care dealership on the site. I'm curious what brand they wold be considering? I'm also curious if Toyota will end up buying the Gambino property to expand their lot size and use the new-in-2000 Ford service center building for their own.