Published: November 25, 2009 10:47 am      

City not ready to sell land to schools

CLINTON — Clinton City Council members decided Tuesday to hold off on selling about 40 acres of land that would be the site of a new middle school until costs for additional streets and sewer work are determined.

The issue sparked some confusion among some council members who said they did not feel like they had enough information about the project to make a decision.

The plan would call for the Clinton School District to purchase the land from the city for about $400,000. The city would then use some of that money to pay for connecting roads and sanitary sewer construction.

However, how much that additional work would cost was not clear to most council members.

“Before we take on more obligations we better take the adding machines out,” said Third Ward Councilman Darrell Smith.

According to the proposal, the property is located east of North 18th Street and north of Second Avenue South. Under that plan, the school would be funded by the 1 cent local option sales tax

Clinton Superintendent Richard Basden and School Board President Jim McGraw were at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss the issue with the council.

“We need to move forward because our budget crunch is very significant,” McGraw said.

The council unanimously approved sending the issue to city staff to come up with the total cost and iron out some more details of the project.

In other action, the council listened to a presentation from the Clinton Regional Development Corp. about the Lincolnway Railport.

The presentation listed the total cost of the railport at $20.8 million and said it could generate 1,000 new jobs over five years and spur $23.5 million in investment into the community.

The Committee of the Whole also approved sending a letter of support to state and federal lawmakers about the federal government purchasing Thomson Correctional Center.