Gainesville School District gets approval for 90/10 grant to build new FEMA storm shelter


Times photo / Jessi Dreckman Gainesville superintendent Justin Gilmore said last week that a recently announced grant will help fund a FEMA storm shelter that will create a new front appearance and a new entrance for Gainesville’s high school / junior high building.

Twelve years and two more attempts after the Gainesville R-V School District was first approved for a FEMA grant to build a storm shelter “safe room,” the district was notified last week that a new 90/10 grant for a shelter has been approved. 

The structure should become a reality sometime in the next 30 months, said Gainesville superintendent Justin Gilmore, who called the government funding the “Cadillac of grants.”

The school district’s 10 percent portion of the $2,274,240 FEMA project amounts to $227,000. Gilmore said last week there also will be additional costs related to finishing out the hardened structure to prepare it for the district’s everyday use and its primary role as a storm shelter for the school district’s students and staff members as well as residents within a half-mile radius of the school. 

Six months is allotted for the design period, he said. Gainesville’s first storm shelter grant was approved by FEMA in 2008, but at that time, the school board added other improvements to the shelter plans, and to pay for the whole project, the district asked voters to continue its current tax levy at the time, which was $3.49 per $100 assessed valuation. Voters turned down that levy-extension request by 34 votes, and the grant expired. It is believed that the 2008 grant, like the 2020 version, required a 90/10 “match,” meaning FEMA would provide 90 percent of the cost of the shelter and the district would pay 10 percent. (The Times could not immediately confirm whether the 2008 grant was a 75/25 or a 90/10 matching grant, but former school board president Steve Rackley said Monday his recollection was that it was 90/10.)

When voters rejected that 2008 request to continue the $3.49 levy, which had been approved in 1994 with a sunset clause, it was allowed to drop to $3.03. After another decrease occurred, the Gainesville School District’s tax levy dropped to its current $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation, the lowest in the county – and the lowest allowed by the state.

Since then, several attempts have been made to increase the school district’s tax levy, but voters have turned down all ballot proposals. 

The most controversial aspect of the 2008 project seemed to be that the FEMA shelter would be finished out as a two-story gym with a walking track around the upper story available for community use at designated times. The gym would have been outfitted with telescopic bleachers and stadium seats for 1,100 guests (double the current gym’s seating capacity). New locker rooms would also have been built, and the storm shelter / gym would have been completely handicap accessible. The 2008 project also would have created two specialized classrooms, provided an improved heating / cooling system and a state-of-the-art sound system, and included a new school entrance equipped with restrooms. 

Voters turned down the 2008 proposal, with 390 voting against and 366 voting for it.

A second application for a storm shelter, submitted last year, was turned down by FEMA. 

But the third time’s a charm, and Gov. Mike Parson announced last week that more than $9 million in FEMA grants have been approved to build safe rooms (storm shelters) in six Missouri school districts, including Gainesville. Besides the Gainesville district, other applications were approved for Holcomb in Dunklin County, Lakeland in Henry County, Summersville in Shannon County, Cabool in Texas County and Hartville in Wright County.

Parson said the federal share of the six matching grants ranges from Gainesville’s approximately $2.04 million to Cabool’s $877,000. 

Gainesville’s safe room was described in Parson’s announcement as being “attached to the middle school building capable of protecting 930 students, staff, and residents. It will also serve as a multi-purpose space.”

Gainesville is the third of Ozark County’s five school districts to be awarded funding for a FEMA shelter. Dora and Bakersfield both completed their FEMA shelters in 2018 – and both schools use their large, open safe rooms for school purposes when not needed as a storm shelter. Bakersfield superintendent Dr. Amy Britt said Monday that Bakersfield uses its safe room every school day for classes, professional development sessions and other uses. One corner of Bakersfield’s safe room was adapted to become administrative offices, freeing up the former administrative space for a more convenient area for the school’s special education department. The storm shelter doors unlock automatically whenever a tornado warning is issued for the Bakersfield area – and relock when the warning is lifted. 

Dora also uses its safe room for daily school purposes, including elementary PE classes and indoor recess. A Dora School employee said Monday the doors do not unlock automatically when a tornado warning is issued, but a designated person is always available to do so. 

Safe rooms at both Dora and Bakersfield include restrooms and a small kitchen and storage area, plus an outdoor generator.

Britt estimated that Bakersfield had used its safe room during tornado warnings 8-10 times since it opened in late 2018.

Except for Gainesville’s 2008 application, all the Ozark County schools’ successful FEMA shelter applications, as well as the Shannon, Texas and Wright county schools’ applications, were written by Jessica Paulk, community development specialist with the South Central Ozarks Council of Governments, which serves a seven-county area. 

“As the regional planning commission, we write the grant applications on the schools’ behalf,” Paulk told the Times last week. SCOCOG also asks for letters of recommendation and support, including letters from area governments and legislators. Then the package is submitted to the State Emergency Management Agency for initial review, and, if approved, SEMA forwards the applications to FEMA, “which has the final say in how the money is divided up,” Paulk said. 

She said Ozark County’s other two school districts, Lutie and Thornfield, have not requested SCOCOG’s help in applying for FEMA storm shelter grants. Lutie superintendent Scot Young and Thornfield administrator Melissa Campbell confirmed Monday that their districts are not currently working toward a storm shelter grant.  

Missouri Rep. Karla Eslinger and Missouri Sen. Mike Cunningham wrote letters of support to accompany the applications of the districts in their areas. Asked about the Gainesville application, Eslinger said, in an email to the Times, “I am very excited for our school and community. This is an awesome testament to the faith and support we have for our community and our great school.”

Cunningham’s chief of staff, Doris Broeker, said Cunningham was “pleased to be able to play a small part in the process to support Gainesville’s application as well as those submitted by Cabool and Hartville.”

Paulk, who wrote the FEMA grant applications and assembled the supporting letters, shared the good feelings following the governor’s announcement of the grants.

“I was very excited for my communities,” she said.

Ozark County Times

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