Residents in the Saranac Lake Central School District are being asked to approve a multi- million-dollar capital project that will give some long-needed attention to aging infrastructure.

The $18.7 million referendum, which was scheduled for Jan. 10 in a unanimous vote at Wednesday night’s school board meeting, budgets money to repair electrical and plumbing systems, replace fire safety equipment, rehabilitate the track and field surfaces, create a new school bus drop off location, as well as new sidewalks, gym floor and bleachers. Under the capital plan unveiled a month ago, every school would receive attention.

Capital improvements were identified in the district’s buildings condition survey that the state mandates to be conducted every five years. The district’s facilities maintenance committee, spearheaded by district Director of Facilities Vernon James, has been compiling a list of repairs since 2013. It concluded $43 million in improvements was needed.

“We knew we could not afford that and a lot of work has gone into whittling down that list to what we could make work and what was already on borrowed time,” Superintendent Diane Fox said at an earlier meeting.

Based on early estimates announced last night, property owners would see a property tax increase of 24 cents per thousand dollars. If voters approve the measure, a new higher tax rate could take affect in the upcoming year, but the bigger hit would be in two years.

“These are preliminary numbers,” Fox said. “Our numbers are conservative, and we have budgeted on the high end. Hopefully the actual increase will be less.”

The capital bond would be for 10 years and would begin just as two $4 million bonds are being paid off this year. To avoid a fluctuating tax cap as the debt is retiring, board Chairman Clyde Baker said he would rather put the bond question to voters now to avoid a tax dip, followed by an increase.

Should voters approve it, the district could begin work as soon as this summer, he said.

Board Vice-President Aurora White asked about the $4.6 million unallocated fund balance, which is unspent monies from previous years’ operating budgets that has been carried over to the current year.

“I’m concerned there may be a public perception that we carried too much over and they could ask why we are not using it,” White said.

Fox responded by stating the unallocated fund is the only reserve the district has.

“It’s our rainy day fund,” she said.

It has grown in the past decade from about $1 million in 2007 to the $4.6 million currently available. Fox said the state wants districts to have at least 4 percent of their budget in reserves, which would calculate to $1.2 million.

“That really is not a lot,” Fox said. “That is not even one month of payroll, and if we had an emergency, we could find ourselves with a cash flow issue.”

The board agreed that the goal is to level out the tax levy by creating a capital reserve fund where unallocated funds could be transferred to in the hopes that it could be used for the next project.

“Our goal is to time the capital projects going forward to about every five years so the bond would not be so large. We want to smooth out the tax levy and avoid spikes,” Baker said.

At the board’s next scheduled meeting on Nov. 2, the district’s financial consulting firm, Bernard P. Donegan Inc., will be on hand to finalize the amount of the capital outlay and the tax implications.