Skate park; School board OKs having attorneys for USD 234 and city work out details for land swap for new facility.

Attorneys for USD 234 and the city of Fort Scott will work out details on a land swap between the two entities to make way for a skate park.

Approval for the move was given by USD 234 board members at their regular meeting Monday. Fort Scott Skatepark Committee Co-Convenors Nate Lyons and Bailey Gray presented an update on the project.

The park will be located parallel to U.S. Highway 69 between the Third and Sixth Street catwalks. Skatepark Committee members hope to break ground on the project soon. Some of the land is owned by the city and some by the school district. Once an agreement is worked out, Business Manager Tiffany Forester said plans are to put city property in the district's name and deed property in the school district's to the city.

At its Jan. 3 meeting, the Fort Scott City Commission tabled discussion on a contract for engineering services for the skate park. City Manager Dave Martin said at that meeting the Fort Scott Skatepark Committee met its $100,000 fundraising goal to build the park.

However, Assistant City Manager Susan Brown said Monday the city needed to make sure the school board was still in favor of the property swap.

Martin said an accord should be ready to be finalized by the commission's next regular meeting on Jan. 17.

Martin and Brown attended the school board meeting to report on the Take Charge Challenge, a friendly competition between 16 cities in Kansas divided into four regions to promote energy efficiency. The contest was facilitated by The Climate and Energy Project in partnership with the Energy Division of the Kansas Corporation Commission and ran from January through September. It was announced Oct. 26 that Fort Scott won the prize of a $100,000 grant. It is a federal grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will come through the city.

Initially, the funds were going to be used to light Ellis Park. But now, plans are to use it to install more energy efficient lighting at Fort Scott High School gym, the old and new gyms at Buck Run Community Center and the ballfields at Fisher Park north and south. Brown noted these facilities are used practically year-round.

The funds were also earmarked to replace lighting at Frary Field, but officials said Monday that was not a viable project.

Forester said an engineer quoted a price of $180,000 to replace the poles and lights at Frary Field. Additionally, Brown said the projects have to be completed by September and federal guidelines required that if any digging was done, an environmental assessment would have to be conducted and there wasn't time for that.

Initially, the Take Charge funds were earmarked for lighting of Ellis Park, but it was later learned that the money had to be used for existing projects, not new ones, Brown said. "You want to do great things for your community, but there are so many federal regulations, it made it somewhat difficult to do some of the projects we would like to do for the community, and of course, we wanted projects that would impact a large number of citizens," Brown said.

School board President Janet Braun said she appreciated Brown and Martin talking to the board and choosing projects that could benefit the whole city.

"It was definitely a collaboration of all the taxing entities," Brown said.

In other action Monday, the board:

* Approved suspending the Neighborhood Revitalization Program for a year. The program provided tax rebates for commercial and residential property owners who made significant improvements to their property. Applications were "very low" in 2011, so it was put on hold for a year so it can be reevaluated, Forester said. Those in the program will still receive rebates for the next four years, even if this is their first year in the program.

* After much discussion, approved the proposed 1,116-hour calendar for the 2012-13 school year. The proposal fits within the current negotiated agreement between teachers and the school board and will serve as a starting point for the negotiation process which starts Feb. 1.

* Approved employing Brad Matkin as a Fort Scott Middle School basketball coach; Brandi Page as a paraeducator at Eugene Ware Elementary School; Allison Gorman as a middle school volleyball coach; and Ronette Center as middle school gymnastics coach.

The board also approved a request for early retirement from Karen Nichols, a sixth-grade teacher at the middle school.

* Set 5:30 p.m. Feb. 1 for a strategic planning session with Doug Moeckel from the Kansas Association of School Boards. The board met with Moeckel in December to work on the district's mission statement and will continue that process in February.

* Held an executive session, after which no action was announced and the meeting was adjourned.