The Newport Board of Education Unanimously voted in the favor of the issuance of Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) of 30 million US dollars for the development of hotel and mixed-used parking lots nearby World Peace Bell Hospitality.
World Peace Bell Hospitality is the firm that is baking this project, through Newport’s Hampton Inn.
The new plan includes parking lots at Fourth and Monmouth streets. It will get rid of the building which is connected to World Peace Bell used to house Southbank associates.
The Authorities of the city and the developers of the project in a bid to get the acceptance by the school board had offered some incentives like cutting down on the cost of school district’s school resource officer by 8,000 US dollars and providing credit at the hotel to the district.
The school district will receive 50,000 US dollars instead of traditional property taxes in the next ten years and 75,000 US dollars in the next thirty years due to the issuance of these bonds.
The Newport School’s Chief Financial Officer, Tete Turner, said, that the new project will cost the district some money. But he had seen all the aspects of the agreement, and this will bring the much-needed growth in jobs and revenue to the city.
As it provides students the opportunity of employment in the near future. It was also got approved by the Campbell County Fiscal Court.
Short-term deal with TANK
The Board has also finalized the deal of three buses, which is going to be used as a transport for school children from 7 to 12 grades with Transit Authority of North Kentucky (TANK).
The previous year, the district asked for two buses which were not enough. The Director of Facilities and Transport, Tim Grayson said, “There is no way we could transport all our children, there is no way unless we started using a split schedule.”
This new agreement will ease out the burden on the district’s own transportation as they can concentrate on college students.
Grayson said that the district is looking to buy new buses but the problem persists in finding good drivers. This is a stop-gap solution until the district orders new buses. The contract with TANK was 71,000 US dollars.
