The Marshall County Park Board held their third meeting since being formed earlier this year on Thursday in the Commissioner’s meeting room of the County Building at 6 p.m.
During last month’s meeting, member Deb VanDeMark told the group she had been approached by several people interested in seeing something happen with the old West School property on State Road 17. Last night she presented lots of information on the site. The property is currently listed for sale with an asking price of $95,000. The building has been declared by the county’s Unsafe Building Committee to be unsafe and the owners have been given notice to have the building and foundation removed.
The West School property is currently listed on the county’s GIS as being owned by the Cheryl Musilek Trust. She has passed away and her daughter is handling the estate. There are taxes past due on the property and it could go for tax sale next year.
West Township Trustee, Terry Borggren gave VanDeMark two appraisals he had done on the property just over a year ago. One appraisal was $65,000 while the second one was $83,000. It was noted that it would cost $40,000 to have the building demolished although the cost could be higher with environmental issues.
A Phase I Environmental investigation has already been approved for the property and would take about 20 days to complete.
VanDeMark had a discussion with the neighborhood across the street that has the county’s first trustee’s office, which is a log cabin on their property. They would like the log cabin removed and VanDeMark suggested moving the cabin to the West School grounds. An Amish company from Nappanee said it would cost $30,000 to dismantle the cabin, replace the rotten bottom logs and rebuild it on the school grounds.
Board member Greg Hildebrand said he’s in favor of the project. He did ask what steps they need to take.
Member Dick Markley said it was a good project to take on. He said it will show the public that progress is getting made by the park board.
Adam Thada, board member said although he felt they should have a mission statement and vision first…after additional discussion he too was in favor of moving forward.
The final park board member, Brian Main from Bremen said he wasn’t very familiar with the property but hearing all the information presented felt comfortable with moving forward.
While the County Park Board does not currently have any funding source, the motion was made to offer $25,000 for the property with the understanding the park board would handle the demolition and past due taxes. The agreement would include a stipulation that the County Park Board could obtain the funding and that the environmental findings are something that could be handled without too much additional funding.
The County Park Board unanimously approved the motion. During their discussions they suggested the county commissioners, township trustee and public donors could be sources for the funding needed to purchase the property.
