BuckeyeBlog

Now, walk me through this.

I own a quite nice building. Historic character, maybe even historic, but let’s just say it’s a nice building.

Issue is, it needs renovating, no longer meets my needs. That’s expensive. Moreover, it’s too big. I need less than only half of it. And did I say I don’t have money to burn? I can pay only what I can afford, which is enough to meet my actual business needs.

That’s not a hard business decision. I spend what I need for my business, which in this case sure sounds like a different building. I’ll be renting, buying or building elsewhere. If I’m a rich philanthropist who wants to renovate the existing building, fine, spend my rich philanthropist money.

But I’m not a rich philanthropist, I’m a businessman, so check that option off.

Maybe I can round up some speculators to invest in my building and take a flyer that renovated buildings of historic character will be worth the investment. I hear senators McCain and Obama want to put all the oil speculators out of work, so there ought to be plenty of speculators around with pockets-full of cash and nothing else to do.

But for some reason I’m not finding them, so check that one off.

Oh, what to do, what to do. Hey! Why didn’t I think of this before? I’ll just ask the state for money–and by golly the state says yes! Except, doggone it, even the state recognizes this is a bad business decision and will still pay only the amount I actually need.

Well, that leaves just one thing: “But if granted a waiver for more time, an aggressive fund-raising campaign could be started, and leaders could hunt for building preservation grants or explore partnerships with businesses and community organizations for use of part of the building.”

And the best part is, it’s other people’s money! In fact, it’s your money.

The Ohio School Facilities Commission told Lakewood that it would help build only six buildings, not the original seven . That raises a difficult question:

The commission determined that the district won’t need the extra school because Lakewood’s enrollment is expected to decline to 5,434 students by the 2016-17 school year. Current enrollment is 6,010.

That means the district has to decide whether to forgo the additional elementary school or ask taxpayers for the extra money.

How hard is this decision? If you accept that the numbers are declining, how can you accept a new building and additional capacity? No task force required.