Login

You are not currently logged in.

'Kind of a shot in the dark:' HVS rejects township's offer of $1 for Highland Middle

Members of the Huron Valley Schools Board of Education on Monday weren’t sold on Highland Township’s offer of $1 for the shuttered Highland Middle School building located at 305 N. John Street. (Spinal Column Newsweekly photo/Amy K. Lockard)

The Huron Valley Schools Board of Education on Monday, Dec. 3 rejected an offer by Highland Township to buy the Highland Middle School building from the district.

Township Supervisor Rick Hamill was authorized by the township Board of Trustees last week to enter negotiations with the district to purchase the building.

“I tendered the offer,” Hamill said Monday, prior to the school board’s meeting. “Now we have to let them go through their process to either laugh at it or what.”

Hamill on Monday declined to discuss the amount of the offer.

Kim Root, spokeswoman for the school district, said yesterday, Tuesday, Dec. 4 that the offer was discussed and rejected at the school board’s meeting on Monday.

“The board made a motion to reject an offer by the Highland Township Board to purchase the school for $1,” she said.

Proposals believed by the district and others to be on a fast track in the state Legislature included provisions calling for a statewide inventory of used school buildings so they can be leased or sold to other educational entities. Board of Education President Sean Carlson said the bills create a sense of urgency to move up the timetable to sell or demolish the middle school building, as well as other schools closed by the district.

The township board in September voted to decline purchasing the middle school located at 305 N. John Street, citing maintenance costs as an obstacle. Utility costs alone have been estimated at $40,000 a year. However, the sense of urgency and a desire to utilize the school and its property reopened discussions about the potential purchase among newly elected township officials.

Hamill said the property is more than a school, and suggested several possible uses if the district entertained the offer, including a park, a business incubator for the township’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA), providing land for possible sewer infrastructure, or other community uses.

“This is kind of a shot in the dark,” Hamill said. “We had a last minute opportunity to see what we can do there.”

4 Responses to 'Kind of a shot in the dark:' HVS rejects township's offer of $1 for Highland Middle

  1. Bobby

    December 6, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    LMAO….. God love ya there Rick for such a crazy offer to such a bunch of fools that have absolutely no clue. Just the start of what is poised to be an amazing and productive couple of years for Highland with you as our supervisor.

  2. Janet

    December 7, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Highland township just passed a police millage because they were so broke. Even if they get this building for $1? where will they get money to maintain it, pay utilities, etc?

    Stop screwing the taxpayers. HIghland township should stay out. The school board should sell this building to a private or charter school so that parents have a choice other than the Huron Valley schools.

    By the way school board, this building is owned by taxpayers and not school board members.

  3. Q.

    December 7, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    What’s the rush? They’re going to spend $200,000 to raze a building based on merely on proposed legislation? On the chance that a charter school might be able to use the former Highland Middle building? Slow down. Show me the law that’s supposedly forced such actions.

  4. Don Wade

    December 16, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    Why isn’t the school shut down with the windows covered and building winterized to save the $ 40,000/year. Have all the contents in the school been salvage for reuse or sold.

    If $200,000 is spent to tear the school down how much is the land under the school worth. If not more than $200,000 plus, do nothing.

    If Highland wants the building, only sell the land the building is on and not the acres of play area etc.

    Sell the building with restrictions that HVS do not want it used for such as a charter school.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login