Center School building headed toward a sale

The Grand Coulee Dam School District board declared Center School and its 8.5 acre property surplus Monday night.

The board authorized Superintendent Dennis Carlson to move forward and schedule a public hearing so the public could have input on the possible sale of the property.

The school district recently purchased the property for $155,000, lending itself the money from its capital fund. Any sale of the property would return the money to the fund.

The property was purchased from the Continental Land Company, which years ago made the site available to be used for a school, with the provision that when school activity on the property ceased, the land and anything on it would revert back to the company. The Continental Land Company largely deals with mining interests.

Carlson said that he hasn’t set a date for the public hearing but the event likely would take place in the spring.

Carlson had said earlier that the site had about 5.2 usable acres of land for development, but builders would likely find a way to use the additional land.

The district will get the property appraised as it starts the process of getting it ready for sale.

The building and property had been valued by the county assessor at $2.739 million, but it likely would not appraise near that amount since any use of the building would require a considerable investment.

The building housed about 350 students from kindergarten through fourth grades before students moved to the district’s new complex in Coulee Dam.