By Megan Alley
Sun Reporter
The New Richmond Exempted Village School District Board of Education recently sold off the school district’s Market Street School property to the highest bidder, and the new owner plans to turn the historic building into an adult day health center.
The public auction – a process by which school officials formally opened the received bid – for the property at 212 Market St. was held on Jan. 6 at 10 a.m. at the school’s current administrative office, located inside the building.
According to School District Treasurer Julia Toth, who presented the bids to the board of education during its regular meeting on Jan. 21, the Market Street School property had recently been appraised for $296,000, with “the grand assumption that there were no environmental issues in the building,” referring to the fact that the building had asbestos in it.
“We have had the air monitored in this building for many, many years, and the air reports come back clean, but we make no guarantee as to what a developer would want,” Toth said.
The building was sold “as is,” and the school district received two bids – one for $301,000 and one for $425,000 – for the property.
The board unanimously approved to accept the higher bid, which was submitted by Payal Patel, of Cincinnati, who plans to turn the building into an ADHC.
In a building purpose letter addressed to the board of education, but with a salutation directed to village of New Richmond Mayor Glenn Ewing, Patel stated that the ADHC will provide “level one waiver participants a place to socialize, assistance with activities of daily living and regular check ups under the supervision of a registered nurse.”
The letter also states that, “Waiver participants will not have to pay for any services as waiver program will cover the cost of the program,” and that, “The ADHC strives to give back to the community by creating employment opportunities and tax revenue for the township.”
With the school district heading to the ballot box in March to ask voters to approve a 9.4 mills operating levy, it came as no surprise that the school board members all approved selling the Market Street School property to the highest bidder.
Getting a levy approved by voters, and selling the expendable properties, is all part of the school board’s widespread plan to replace the revenue it lost from the closing of the Beckjord power plant and the devaluation of the Zimmer plant; at least $8 million annually.
Last year, the school board approved a consolidation plan aimed at reducing spending by $3.2 million, but they still have another estimated $5 million to make up and prevent the district from going into fiscal emergency.
Addressing a room of area residents, several of whom spoke earlier in the meeting about their concerns that a “quick” sale of the centralized property could negatively affect the village’s character, Board of Education Member Kevin Walriven said, “This [sale] is the type of thing that the school system needed to do to show good faith so that we could move forward when we ask for levies and things like that; this is all part of that whole entire process of tying to solidifying this school system to keep it as good as I remember, and all these people remember it being for all the years that we’ve been here.”
He added, “That’s what entered into the types of decisions that we have to make, and right, wrong or indifferent, that’s the type of stuff that we had to focus on.”
In accepting the highest bid, the board of education passed over an offer that included a plan to turn the Market Street School building into a multi-tenant commercial building, with a proposal to provide first floor occupancy to the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati.
Late last year, representatives from the local Boys and Girls Club held a public meeting to share the news of its intent to sell the New Richmond club’s existing building; at the time, the club had been in negotiations with the New Richmond Exempted Village School District to “lease” space to run its program out of one of the schools.
The $301,000 bid was put forth by New Richmond residents Joby Houck and Ed Horgan.
In their purpose letter to the board, they stated that they, “strongly feel that the Market Street School building critically needs to remain a benefit to the village and not a deterrent,” and that “watching this historic school become a dilapidated and uncared for structure or used in a way that would be a detriment to the village should not be an option.”
After the board of education’s vote, Village Council Member Mary Allen, who was “disappointed” by the decision, said that “for quite a while, months, the [board of education] talked about getting rid of this building, and I don’t think adequate consideration was given to the effect that eliminating this building from the community would have. And, it’s not just just the sale, it really is what the building will be used for … I just felt that there wasn’t the level of engagement and consideration that there should have been.”