October 5, 2011
Town offers $1 for
Morison
by Vance Gutzman
A dollar doesn't go as far as it used to, but the town of Deep River is
trying to get a bang for its buck old school.
Quite literally, in fact.
The town has made an offer to purchase the former Morison School for
one dollar.
The decision to tender the nominal offer came during a special council
meeting held last week to discuss the most recent correspondence sent
to the municipality by the Renfrew County District School Board
(RCDSB), which owns the Morison property.
In that letter, RCDSB corporate services superintendent Lisa Kuehl gave
the town until this past Friday, September 30, to submit an offer on
the property, if it was so inclined.
The school board declared the property surplus earlier this year and
appraised its value at $700,000.
Under the rules governing the sales of such properties, the RCDSB first
extended the offer to sell the school to other public bodies.
The town did express an interest in the property this summer, but
balked at the price tag.
"The Town of Deep River is not interested in entering into an agreement
for the purchase of Morison School at the appraised value of $700,000,"
Deep River's chief administrative officer, Michelle Larose, stated on
behalf of council in an August 25 letter to the school board.
"However, if the board is in a position, in accordance to governing
regulations, to negotiate a new price for the acquisition of the
school, council would be willing to meet to negotiate such."
In her September 12 letter to the town, Kuehl stated that, if the town
did not submit an offer by the end of the month, the school board would
take the next step in the process and list the property on the open
market.
With all that in mind, Mayor David Thompson said at last week's special
meeting, held four days prior to the September 30 deadline, that the
school board was actually being magnanimous in having extended the
deadline to the town for as long as it has.
"This letter opens the door to us one final time," Thompson said.
"It's outside the normal process. They didn't need to do that and I'm
glad that they did."
The mayor then asked council members if the municipality should express
an interest in buying the school and the consensus around the table was
that yes, it should.
"I don't think we cannot be interested," Councillor Ruth Syme said,
noting the property could be out to good use by the municipality.
"All of us were elected on a mandate of doing something for things like
seniors' housing, for example."
Syme went on to say that a number of community groups, especially those
requiring gymnasium space, could be assisted should the property wind
up in the town's hands.
"The eyes of the community are on us, to see what we're going to do
with this," Syme said.
"As a starting point, we need to look at some way of swinging this."
Councillor Daniel Banks (who had not yet been appointed to be
MacCafferty's replacement as deputy mayor) pointed out, however, that
should the town not make an offer, that wouldn't be the end of the
world, as a private developer could also do something beneficial with
the property.
"If it does end up on the market, that's not necessarily a loss for
us," Banks said.
"I doubt we'd be able to turn it around quickly. We have to keep that
in mind."
Councillor Terry Myers, meanwhile, came up with the suggestion of
offering a nominal price for the property.
"If nothing else, offering a dollar signals to the school board that
we're aware of the liabilities inherent in buying that property."
Myers was referencing the fact the school board itself has stated in
the past that one of the reasons it closed Morison in the first place
was to save $2.3 million in costs for repairs to the building.
Council was on board with the suggestion of offering a dollar for the
property, with Thompson noting that nominal offers were also made to
school board when the former Cockroft School was put on the block by
the school board some years back.
“The board received three tenders for that school at the time,"
Thompson recalled - one for a dollar, one for $10 and another for
$231,000.
"Which means I probably overspent," he said with a chagrined grin,
referencing the fact his company, Strand Realty, submitted the highest
bid.
And while council members were in favour last week of submitting a
dollar offer for Morison, the town's solicitor, George LeConte,
cautioned them against doing so.
"It may be that offering a dollar is a safe offer," said LeConte, who
was in attendance at the meeting.
"But that might be seen as a low-ball offer, and sometimes when a
low-ball offer is made that's counter-productive to the process."
LeConte went on to suggest that the town should conduct a little more
research, such as the details of the appraisal and what sort of
deficiencies the building has, before submitting any type of offer.
"It seems to me that my client needs more information on the property,"
LeConte said.
"There are some due diligence issues."
Mayor Thompson agreed with the town's solicitor, to a point, noting
that yes, there are probably some important deficiencies in the
building, such as asbestos.
"That's why I'd be hesitant to offer much more," he said.
"And the precedent has been set. This school board has sold schools in
the past for a dollar."
Council ended up passing a resolution directing LeConte to submit a
formal offer to the school board of one dollar for the property.
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