Zoarville, Ohio (WJER) - Tusky Valley School District officials hope to get approved for state funding this summer for major building improvements without having to burden taxpayers. 

Superintendent Mark Murphy says the district wants to use its utility tax revenue from the Rover Pipeline to cover its 61-percent local share of future facility improvements, with the state covering the remaining 39 percent. He says the long-term goal is to go from four buildings down to two by constructing a new 7-12 building and turning the middle school into a pre-k through 6th-grade building.                            
            
“We’re going to increases our efficiencies as well down the road, which is the right things for our students educationally as well as our community that are paying taxes and supporting us,” he says. 

Murphy says they could get approved for the state funds by July and then begin the design process.

“That could be a 12 to 18-month process of design only because that’s where we begin with the architects we begin to seek feedback and input from every aspect, our teachers and staff and students and community groups and boosters and leadership,” he says.

Murphy says the district recently received its rover utility tax check for 2019 totaling $1.5 million. That amount is expected to peak at about $ 2.8-million dollars in 2020. After that, the checks would decrease gradually over 30 years to a few hundred thousand dollars a year.    

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