LemhiWeb

On Wednesday, February 8 and Wednesday, 15 from 4:30-6:30 tours of the Salmon Middle and Elementary Schools are available to the public. Lisa Corn, chairperson of the Salmon School Bond Citizens Committee, said previous tours have helped interested citizens see that many of the items that are failing in the 75-year-old Middle School and the 50-year-old Pioneer Elementary School are beyond repair or patching.

As the March 13 election for a $13,500,000 school bond draws closer, members of the Citizens Committee are volunteering their time to provide accurate information about why a new preK-8 school makes good financial and community sense. They say that without the bond, taxpayers dollars will increasingly be shifted from educating students to fixing buildings.

Corn, her husband Richard, and their 9 children moved to Salmon in 2010 from Middleton, a community that passed a $51.9 million school bond in 2009 as the height of the recession was hitting the town. She thinks the community of Salmon can rally in a similar way.

"This is more than just a school we're talking about," Corn said. "It's about healing old wounds. Sometimes I feel like some of the community foundations have crumbled like the school's foundations have, and people just need to be listened to. We're trying to provide good information about why we need a new school. No one is trying to cheat the community or trying to mislead them. I think we are on the right track toward re-building those bonds."

In addition to the Feb 8 and 15 school tours, the Citizens Committee is hosting a free pancake breakfast and more school tours on Saturday, February 25