The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-06-19
SHOWS WHAT COST WILL Be
Taxpayers Attention is Called to the
Action of Board in Ignoring Report
of Experts and Minority is Defended
in the Position Taken.
(From Wednesday Daily

(From Wednesdays Daily
To the Evening News:
The minority of the school board de-
sires space for the following:
The Central school building is to be
torn eventually. First it is to
be fixed up at an estimated expense of
from $4,000 to $4,000 It will then be
used for period of from four to six
years as high school, being first bor-
dered on the north by an auditorium
and gymnasium, costing $4,000, as es-
timated and to be erected at once.
Two years later it will be bordered on
the south by another structure devoted
largely to science, manual training and
the domestic arts, at an estimated cost
of second $4,000. All this time there
will be no assembly room, as the pres
ent assembly room is to be cut up into
class rooms. Six years later it is con
templated to tear out the old building,
which will then be the middle section,
and complete the new structure by the
substitution Of new middle section
that will be more in keeping with sec
tions / and 3, and at an estimated cost
of a third $4,000. In this last act %
or more rooms will be destroyed, but of
course replaced by a certain number.
In the meantime to care for the needs
of the growing grades an addition to
tAe DlRkee school is contemplated. at
a cost which no one has had the teiner-
ity to estimate. The Frank addition
was estimated at $4,000 and cost $4O,-
900. The people who pay are each en-
titled to one guess as to the cost of the
proposed Durkee wing. Probably u
to 20 room building will be erected on
the Collins street lot. The new mem
bers of the board have not been shown
the plans drawn and paid for covering
that site, and know nothing about that.
The trouble with the Central school
is in the wing. Schools should be built
large enough in the first place that they
will not need to have wings grated
on. The Ewing disease seems to be
epidemic, and is very costly in physi
clans, nurses and attendants.
The architect of the board and his
consulting engineers declare the high
school wing unsafe. They do not criti-
cize the main building, except casually
to say that it lacks proper light
A second Investigating commission de
clares that the wing can be made alb
solutely safe at a small expense, and
that the assembly room can be retained
intact. That so repaired the building
will be Of use for many years to come.
This commission has at least equal wis
dom with the first commission, and also
has the advantage of state authority
One member is an architect consulting
IL.
Others are local builders who not only
understand theory, but have erected
large structures sustaining loads in ex-
cess Of any possible loads that may oc-
cur at the school. They also have the
habit of keeping within their estimates,
and get value received from contractors.
When asked to pass upon the lighting,
building, the state through it's author
lied agent made answer verbally that
if the state approved the building,
there would later be no condemnation
of it. A chance remark dropped may
be of interest: 'sThis building is in
better condition than some of our Nor
nal schools
The old boards have tinkered with
the roof of this annex and loaded it
down with rods of ridiculous diameter,
and trusses sufficient to support twenty
roofs, but applied in such manner
that they do more harm than good
Had the roof been tied by horizontal
rods of moderate size, and at small ex-
pense, all this turmoil and contemplated
expenditure would not have come upon
us. Many have suggested such treat
ment in the past, but to no effect.
A minority of the board desires to re-
tain the old building and use it as a
grade school. The minority feels that
if $780, 900 (estimate) is to be spent in
six years, to say nothing of a wing to
the Dnrkee school and a possible new
structure on the Collins st, etc, run
mig into figures We cannot approx