A bid has been received by the Warren County Board of Education for the purchase of the old Morrison School. It will be up to the county’s Financial Management Committee if it wants to take $200,000 less than the desired amount.
Earlier this month, county officials voted to list the old Morrison School property on govdeals.com with a minimum bid of $300,000. Two options presented to the School Board on Tuesday would pay $80,000 or $100,000.
Director of Schools Bobby Cox presented the offers during a School Board Building and Grounds Committee meeting.
“Dwayne Dowd, owner of Warren Custom, has contacted me that he and his wife are interested in purchasing the building, as well as the property,” said Cox. “He gave me two options they were thinking about and they asked if there would be any negotiation. I told him I thought we were open to that.”
The options:
• Purchase the property for $80,000 and the new owners would provide rent-free storage for the school system for five years.
• Purchase the property for $100,000 and the couple would provide rent-free storage for the school system for three years.
Dwayne, in attendance at the meeting with his wife Bernadette, says the building would be used for their business and the land next to it would be donated.
“We don’t necessarily have to have those four acres,” Dowd said. “Instead of us having to just mow it, why not give it back to the community? It was part of the community to begin with. The city of Morrison can use it for a walking trail or something. Our property taxes will be cheaper, our labor will be cheaper because we don’t have to mow it, and we live in Morrison so this is a way for us to give back to the community.”
Bernadette said the couple’s eventual goal would be to update the gym and rent it out for events, rent out the library for activities, and offer some of the rooms for a community recreation cen-ter for Morrison.
The building is currently being used by the school system for storage. Cox says the offer would allow the system to leave items where they are rent free.
“We have a lot we moved out last weekend,” said Cox referring to an auction. “On the back-side of that, if the building is sold, we will have surplus property and we will need a place to store it. We’ve not paid rent, but we’ve looked at it. It was pretty expensive. That’s why we decided to keep the building and use it for storage.”
Possibility standing in the way of the purchase would be the county’s Financial Management Committee members, who in early December unanimously approved putting the property on www.govdeals.com with a minimum price of $300,000.
“I explained to Mr. Dowd this would have to go through finance at the County Commission,” said Cox. “I would have to take it to them, if it’s approved here by the School Board.”
Dowd says he inspected the exterior of the building and found grapefruit-sized holes in the roof.
“I climbed up on the roof and in one section there are gaps in the roof,” said Dowd. “I took pic-tures if anyone wants to see them. Numerous holes. It needs to be addressed quickly. We can fix the roof now for about $30,000. If it waits another six months or eight months, it would be closer to $100,000.”
Cox expressed concerns about offering a fair bidding process.
“I did explain that we did take the vote to put the property on the market. I have received calls from others who are interested in purchasing the property, and whatever we did, we would have to do it on a fair and arbitrary basis,” said Cox. “It’s disposal of public property.”
The offer is a good one, says Cox.
“I think this is a good offer. It’s a good proposal. We’ve talked about the city of Morrison being involved where they can use that land. I don’t see any harm in taking this to the Finance Committee and letting them see it. They are going to have the final say as to how it’s disposed of anyway.”
Building and Grounds Committee members unanimously approved the offer to be presented to Warren County Board of Education for its consideration. Later that night, board members unani-mously approved the measure moving to the next step in the process – consideration by Financial Management Committee.