School boards at odds over land

By Sonja Young
Herald Staff Writer

October 20, 2006 11:25 am

— CLINTON — Two weeks ago, the Clinton School Board — after spending several months looking for appropriate property to relocate its plant services department —thought it had come close to having the perfect plan. A maintenance department and warehouse would be constructed on the property currently housing the district’s transportation department.
The district recently sold the Irving School property, which was home to the plant services department, to Archer Midland Daniels for the company’s expansion in South Clinton.
But the plan came to a sudden halt when the Camanche School Board on Monday directed Camanche School District Superintendent Tom Parker to look into options to get the Clinton district to move off the property.
According to Clinton School District Superintendent Randy Clegg, the district purchased the property approximately six years ago from the Iowa Department of Transportation for $92,000, which he describes as a “tremendous deal.”
It was during a time, Clegg said, when the DOT was closing many of its maintenance facilities.
“The property was made available for sale to other governmental entities and cities,” Clegg explained. “We bought it from the state and made it our transportation facility.”
At that time, the transportation department was located on a section of property behind Clinton High School. According to Clegg, the move freed up space for student parking and got 150 cars off city streets.
Clegg said Larry Dennis, who was Camanche superintendent at that time, raised an objection.
“When we purchased the property we looked into that,” Clegg said, “and we feel our interpretation of the statutes say there is no reason why we can’t own property in another school district.”
Parker, in a phone interview on Thursday, indicated hard feelings about the purchase have been simmering in the Camanche district ever since.
The sale took place during Camanche’s transition from Dennis and Parker.
“The first knowledge Camanche board had was when it was announced in the paper,” Parker said. “When the latest news came out… the Clinton School District was looking to expand its presence in that area by considering a warehouse or maintenance center, that brought this situation to a head.”
According to Parker, the board had a very significant discussion regarding the situation on Monday.
“The school board, in looking at that, believes when the Clinton School District purchased land in the Camanche School District, it places an additional burden on our taxpayers,” Parker said.
With the Clinton district owning the property, it isn’t on the tax rolls because it is a tax exempt organization.
“The argument that this property used to be owned by the state department of transportation, and it was tax exempt at that time — doesn’t address the concern that… it will not return to the tax rolls, where as if a private business bought it that it would return to the tax tolls,” Parker continued. “This places an additional burden on the Camanche School District.”
But Clegg wants to know if the Clinton district vacates the property and it goes back to the state if there would be any compensation for Clinton’s investment in the property.
Furthermore, Clegg said, there is a timeline crunch because the district has to turn the Irving property over to ADM on Jan.1.
Clegg said it would cost the district about $2 million to relocate both the transportation and maintenance departments.
“I don’t know where we’d go,” he said. “there are so many opportunities for Camanche and Clinton to share resources. … This comes at a time when the state Legislature is encouraging collaboration between districts. What a great opportunity.”
Two concerns for Clegg are the cost of litigation for both district if the dispute goes to court as well as “the impact this will have on the relationship between the two communities.”
But Parker says the Camanche School Board believes it is fundamentally wrong for a school district to own or purchase land in another school district.
“It makes it a very complex problem when the Clinton School District made the decision to buy property in the Camanche School District,” Parker concluded. “I think the Clinton School District would have been better served to stay within its boundaries — and then this would not have been an issue.”