ALPENA — By funding facilities renovations through two separate bond sales, Alpena Public Schools would ease the tax burden on county property owners who are still paying off the last major renovations in the district, Superintendent John VanWagoner said Thursday.

This week, the APS Board of Education filed paperwork with the Michigan Treasury that would allow the district to sell up to $66 million in bonds for renovations to its school buildings. The biggest projects would be Alpena High School renovations, security upgrades throughout the district, and the construction of a new Ella White Elementary School.

Property owners would repay those bonds over 25 years through a new, up-to-2-mill tax that would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $100 a year.

This week’s decision was not final. Board members have until February to vote on whether or not to put the proposal before voters on the May ballot.

Property owners are still paying off the last bonds sold by the district. A late-1990s bond project built Thunder Bay Junior High and Lincoln Elementary, and property owners are currently paying 1.8 mills — or about $90 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house — to pay off those bonds.

That tax is due to expire in 2021.

However, tax bills for APS debt would not double if voters approved the plan, VanWagoner said Thursday.

Under the current proposal, the district would raise the money in two chunks: $49 million next year, for basic necessities such as roofs and masonry items, followed by $17 million in 2022 — after the current tax expires –for interior items, such as boilers.

Doing so requires less tax revenue upfront for repayment.

If voters approved the proposal in May, the 2019 tax bill for APS debt would be 2.5 mills total — or about $125 for the owner of a $100,000 house, VanWagoner said Thursday.

Citing information provided by the county, VanWagoner said the average tax over the 25 years of the new bond project would be 3.04 mills, or $152 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house.

That figure would drop after the current bonds are repaid.