The board approved a plan setting the terms for accepting bids from parties interested in buying property at 2620 South Jefferson Avenue, which includes a playground and school buildings known as Madison School.
The school district will advertise that it is accepting bids and then a date to review the bids. The district is not obligated to accept any of the bids.
One real estate professional told NIT that “It’s smart to ask for bids, to see what the property is worth. Maybe there’s someone willing to pay a premium for the property. If that is the case, the bids will show that. And since they are not obligated to any of the bids, accepting them is a smart move.”
Keeping Madison School buildings on-line and operational costs the district $35,000 per year. The building is far from perfect, but Superintendent Anita Micich confirmed that, despite other reports, the building is up to code. There were students in the building just two years ago, attending classes.
A Mason City citizen familiar with city building codes and liability told NIT that “It would be an extremely foolish move to send kids to school in a building that was not up to code. I would hope that before sending 7th graders there a couple years ago, the district made sure the building was safe.”
To re-furbish the school, a price tag of well over a million dollars would be due. The adjoining playground and green space is extremely important to many residents in the area, and other residents fear that the sale of the school building would lead to very bad consequences for the neighborhood. One resident said that the building could be sold, then gutted and abandoned by the new owner, and it would be very difficult to force that property owner to do anything else with the property at that point.
“See those ramshackle buildings on North Federal? We’ll get that down here, and it won’t be pretty,” if the wrong party makes the buy.
[poll random]
Just refuse any and all bids from Russ Hardy. Although he is by far from the only slum lord in Mason City.