The Hilton Central School District continues to fine tune an estimated $58 million capital project that is expected to come before voters on December 4. Administrators were meeting with architects and construction consultants again this week to nail down more details of the project that the board of education will likely approve at its October 9 meeting.

Forty committee members met for a year to study the district facilities’ needs including infrastructure maintenance programming changes that could include full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.

What started out as an $80 million project has been honed down to a $58 million project that, if approved by voters in December, would take until the fall of 2004 to complete.

Some of the major pieces of the proposal include: 13 kindergarten, two prekindergarten classrooms and 13 other elementary classrooms; demolition of the middle school pool and construction of a new eight-lane pool, also three classrooms, a special education classroom and expansion of the library at the middle school; eight classrooms, two art rooms, a music room, three technology classrooms, alternative high school space and a dining room at the high school.

Other proposed work includes paving the rear bus lot; building a concession stand, bathroom and storage building near the main track; a new cafeteria at Northwood Elementary; and gymnasium improvements at Quest and Village Elementary Schools.

As it stands, the proposal would add about $1 per thousand assessed value to property tax bills for the first four years, the remaining 16 years of the financing would cost taxpayers a diminishing amount.

Hilton residents will have numerous opportunities to learn the details of the plan before voting on it, according to Barbara Carder Pierce, the district’s director of communications.

Several presentations will be made at the schools and in various community locations. A newsletter will be mailed to all district residents later this fall. On October 24 and November 28, a video that explains the project will be shown on Cable Channel 12 at 7 p.m. The district’s website will contain updated project information as it becomes available. Also at the district’s Learning Expo to be held in November, the project’s impact on district technology programs will be highlighted.