New ‘alternative’ for school building

The Harrison County Board of Commissioners Monday night heard a proposal for a new building for the county’s alternative school.
‘We’re here tonight to present you a golden opportunity,’ Bette Harper, of Schuler Bauer Realtors, said.
Harper and Jay and Curt Jordan, representing the Jordan Trust, presented the property located at 221 S. Harrison Drive to the county for purchase.
‘We think it’s just a perfect spot,’ Harper said.
The building, approximately 2,600 square feet, is located near the South Harrison Community School Corps. Harper said the building would provide a self-contained area for the alternative school with no other traffic entering. It would only need minor modifications for the school, Harper said, and has a storm cellar and adequate parking.
‘We’re motivated and would like to work with you,’ Curt Jordan said.
The alternative school is housed with the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service and the Harrison County Planning and Zoning office at the county’s annex building in Corydon, which is in a flood plain. The commissioners are in the process of providing a new location for the Extension and planning and zoning offices at one of the medical office buildings on the old hospital campus. And alternative school administrators would also like to vacate the building to a safer, more spacious location.
Commissioner James Goldman said if alternative school representatives are interested in the building, the request for the purchase would have to come from them. He said superintendents of the three school corporations in the county also would have to ‘weigh in’ on the decision.
‘They’re an integral part of it,’ he said.
Harper said school representatives have not looked at the building, but said they could at any time. Harper said the schools were presented the proposal last year, but funds were not available to pursue it further.
The board took the matter under advisement.
In other matters, representatives from Harrison Township Volunteer Fire Department requested an additional of $235,000 for a rescue apparatus. Assistant Fire Chief Jon Saulman said the truck, a 2009 Ford F-550 4-by-4 light duty, would be used for firefighting support operations, EMS medical responses, automobile and machinery rescue, rope rescue, water rescue, and haz-mat and confined space rescue operations.
According to Saulman’s report, Harrison Township’s rescue and EMS runs have nearly doubled since 2004, prompting the need for the apparatus. The department does not have a rescue truck, he said.
Saulman also highlighted the department’s goals for 2009, which include expanding services with the new truck, adding swift water rescue classes and a junior firefighter program, remodeling the kitchen to meet demands and focus on growth and development.
The commissioners approved and passed the request to the county council, which will hear it at its meeting Monday night at the courthouse in Corydon. The commissioners will next meet Monday morning, April 6, at 8:30 at the courthouse.