Heating, ventilation and air conditioning improvements and electrical upgrades are needed at 52-year-old Brownstown Central High School, school officials report.

There also are safety concerns at the football stadium, track and tennis courts and in the main gymnasium.

The Brownstown Central Community School Corp. school board tried to address these issues and others in 2012-13, but taxpayers weren’t favorable of the $24 million price tag.

So since then, school officials have worked to break the needs down and address them a little at a time.

Damian Maggos, senior vice president of George K. Baum and Company in Indianapolis, determined what could be done to address the needs at the high school without raising property taxes.

The result was making HVAC improvements and electrical upgrades and correcting the athletics safety concerns, which come at a cost of $7.5 million.

No cuts were made to prevent property taxes from going up. The corporation is just taking advantage of debt falling off to make improvements, said Jade Peters, the corporation’s business manager.

In 2025, debt from work done at the middle and elementary schools in 2010 and at the high school in 2014 will be paid off. The corporation will have more than $300,000 come from the debt service fund from 2018 to 2024. It will jump to nearly $650,000 in 2025, and then remain at $835,000 from 2026 to 2036.

During that time, the debt service rate will not go above 30 cents.

After a presentation of the project and a public hearing, the school board approved the project, preliminary determination and reimbursement resolutions.

The HVAC work will begin in the spring of 2017, while the athletic safety upgrades will begin next summer, and the project will be substantially completed by the fall of 2017.

Read the full story in Tuesday’s Tribune and online at tribtown.com.