The Highland School Board met August 14. Photo by Sam McIntosh.
The Highland School Board approved the sale of the Ainsworth Elementary Building and the ballfield to the City of Ainsworth.
The board reviewed two offers for the school and grounds and for the ballfield and concession stand. The board received an offer of $6,000 for the ballfield and concession stand from Becky Knebel of Iowa City to be used possibly for softball, baseball, and soccer tournaments. The City of Ainsworth offered $1 for the use of city-approved activities. Interim Superintendent Dr. Mike Jorgensen comments on the bids, “The City of Ainsworth is the safe bid from the standpoint that you know there’s a relationship that can be established there. I do not know this individual, I don’t know their ability to maintain and keep those facilities. But the one other thing that I have a little bit of a concern is that is going to be a bus pick up point and when there’s inclement weather it would be nice if we had access to that building for kids to wait inside. I think we would have a very good chance of having that with the City of Ainsworth, in fact we could make that a stipulation of the sale if we wanted to.”
The board moved 5-1 to recommend the sale of the ballfield and concession stand to the City of Ainsworth. The board received a $6,500 bid from Becky Knebel for the school building and grounds to use for retail or residential and keep the gym for activities, and a $1 bid from the City of Ainsworth for community purposes. Vice President Mike Golden says, “The amount of money that’s being offered in the second bid is important but not to the level of what’s maybe worth to those citizens of Ainsworth. And I think they deserve the first chance to get this going. I think they have an opportunity to get it going. I think they have good intentions with it.”
The board moved 4-2 to recommend the sale of the building and grounds to the City of Ainsworth with the stipulations of allowing the building be used for the bus stop and have the first right to negotiation if the property is placed for sale. The board will have a public hearing on the sale of these bids at their September 11 meeting.