43
Auction of school set for Monday
austintown
Opening bid for the old Austintown Middle School has been set at a minimum of $2 million by school officials.
The building at 5800 Mahoning Ave. has been empty since students and staff moved to a new structure at 800 S. Raccoon Road in 2007. The old middle school, built in 1916, was in poor condition and will be auctioned at 10 a.m. Monday.
“The biggest problems we had ... you couldn’t see — the plumbing, the electrical, those kinds of things,” said Dan Bokesch, former AMS principal. “We had a ceiling come down in one of the classrooms, and it was followed by a ceiling in the guidance office.”
A bond issue was passed before the ceiling collapse, which allowed the district to build the $26 million building on Raccoon Road.
Monday’s auction, which will be at the school-board office, will mark the second time the district has tried to sell the building since 2005. It was in that year that a public auction failed to produce bidders, and the district instead made a private sale to This Land is My Land Ltd.
The company backed out of the $2.6 million deal, citing “a pattern of nondisclosure” regarding underground fuel storage tanks, which had leaked and potentially contaminated the soil there.
“We thought we had it sold for $2.6 million and with the stipulation that it was sold as is and with the stipulation that we had to stay in the old building until the new building was built,” said Barb Kliner, who was treasurer at the time.
The district went through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the state’s Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations to see that the property fit state standards as a result.
Bokesch said contaminated soil was removed and replaced.
“We got a clean bill of health,” said Kliner, who acted as liaison between the state and the district.
Now that the property is up to snuff according to the EPA, it’s ready for another go-around.
If no bidders turn up Monday, the district will consider selling for less than the $2 million in an open sale.
Money from a sale will go into the permanent-improvement fund, which Superintendent Vince Colaluca said will act as a “security blanket” for the district.
Colaluca said the district is hoping to get sell the property soon, but that it isn’t wasting money heating or supplying water to the building.
“The only thing on is security and the electricity that runs our security system,” Colaluca said. “Heating is shut down, and water has been shut off for three years.”
Colaluca said he’s anticipating a sale whether or not the auction is successful.
“It’s a great piece of property,” he said. “We know the economy is not where it needs to be, but this property is two minutes from [state] Route 11 and five minutes from [Interstate] Route 80 ... between New York and Chicago. I can’t imagine why a company wouldn’t want to invest there.”