Coshocton City Schools accepts Central offer, rejects Lincoln’s
COSHOCTON – Coshocton City Schools has another of its former elementary school properties off its hands.
At the board of education’s Feb. 17 special meeting members voted to accept the bid made on the former Central Elementary property and reject the bid for the former Lincoln Elementary property.
There were 12 registered bidders at the auction for Central’s land and five were active. The winning bid of $200,000 was made by Craig Casey, who was representing an unidentified third party that turned out to be the Coshocton County Commissioners. They are planning on using the property for a new justice center.
The auction for Lincoln’s land had seven registered bidders and three who were active. Joe Weaver of Weaver Construction won the auction with a $40,000 bid, but the school board members were not happy with the offer.
“We just thought it was too low,” said Dr. Jere Butcher, who is president of the board. “I feel we are responsible to the tax payers and we have to do our best for them and the school district.”
He said the board plans to meet with Jim Nelson from Century 21 Court Square Realty who ran the auctions and consider their options in dealing with the Lincoln property.
At least a portion of the money generated from the sale of these properties has to go toward technology upgrades for the schools.
“Because (taking care of) these properties and building the new elementary school had OSFC (Ohio School Facilities Commission) funding there are some restrictions on what we can do with the money,” Butcher said. “When they started doing these projects they found that schools were deficient in technology so we are required to purchase new technology.”
Before closing the meeting, the board thanked Nelson for his help with the auctions.
“I want to say thank you very much to Mr. Nelson for his hard work and the effort he put into this,” said Steve Clark, board member. “All his work was donated to the school.”
Nelson was more than happy to help.
“I didn’t move here until ‘75 so I wasn’t involved with the school, but the district educated my three sons and did a fine job of preparing them to provide for themselves and their families.”
Butcher also is glad the school is able to put another step in the consolidation process behind them.
“This has been a several year process with building the new elementary school and selling these properties,” he said. “We are down to one campus and the elementary students have been in their building for more than a year and are settled in. We are pleased with how things have turned out.”
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: Education
