District buys site for potential new complex

January 21, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

VIENNA

The Mathews Local School District has purchased the former Prestwick Golf Course in Fowler as a potential location for a new kindergarten-through-12th-grade school complex.

Superintendent Lewis Lowery said the district paid just “under $120,000” for the 120-acre site at Cadwallader-Sonk Road and state Route 193.

“There has been no formal decision to submit a bond issue in November but it’s something the board will look at,” Lowery said.

Last May, a 9.35 mill bond issue to build a $24.7 million K-12 facility to be located on Sheridan Drive in Vienna near Baker Elementary school was rejected by 400 votes. Lowery believes location was a major factor for the defeat.

“We were consistently asked why the board could not come up with a more central location for a building,” the superintendent stated in a news release. “Fowler residents were especially concerned about the distance … to the Baker site.”

Lowery described the land as a “great investment” for the school district even if a new facility is not built. He said the property has an appraised value of more than $400,000 and that the energy industry has been interested in the site.

“Injection-well businesses have shown purchasing interest in excess of $300,000,” Lowery said in his news release.

According to the superintendent, the purchase will not negatively impact district finances. Lowery considers it a bargain.

“You couldn’t pass it by,” he told The Vindicator. “There’s nowhere out here where you can purchase land for $1,000 or less per acre.”

A new building would replace the district’s two elementary schools and the combined junior-senior high school. Lowery was unable to project when the board might vote on another bond issue.