There will be no negotiation on the sale of the former armory to the Greene County school district. The Greene county supervisors, particularly supervisor Mick Burkett, made it clear Monday morning that their proposal to sell the armory “as is” is the final proposal.
Last week the supervisors and the Greene County school board approved proposals with a $250,000 price tag. The school wants to use the armory as a bus garage; the county is willing to sell it and build a new facility for the secondary roads department.
However, the school board’s motion named the purchase as contingent upon all major utilities being in working order.
School superintendent Tim Christensen met with the supervisors Monday about an inspection of the boiler system. The system was winterized and shut off six years ago. School board members, particularly John McConnell, is worried that it is nonfunctional and the school will incur additional expense to get it in working order.
Per the Code of Iowa, the seller is required to inspect the septic system. If work is needed, it’s typical to negotiate payment by the seller and the buyer. The county has not used the septic system since it was inspected in 2009, but the inspection is only valid for two years, sanitarian Chuck Wenthold said.
Board chair John Muir suggested the county and the school would handle any boiler issues the same way.
“I see the furnace the same way. If there’s an issue, I’m confident we’ll have a discussion over who’s going to take care of repairing it. But we’ll know, just like the septic, what condition the boiler’s in after the inspection,” Muir said.
“I’m assuming it was winterized and I’m pretty hopeful it works,” Muir said.
The school will pay for the boiler inspection.
In further discussion, supervisors Tom Contner, Dawn Rudolph and Burkett all made it clear that the building will be sold “as is.”
Burkett and Contner both questioned why the inspection hadn’t been done before agreements were approved. Burkett repeated his comments from last week: “Just like I said last week, this is the wrong time to be doing all this. It’s hurting the school more than it’s hurting anybody else.”
Christensen said the school board’s question is what it will cost to get the building “up and running.”
During the discussion Muir said other parties have come forward who might be interested in purchasing the building should the sale to the school fall through.
The county “begrudgingly” (according to Muir) gave the school permission to inspect the boiler. Christensen said the inspection would be done Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
