4 am: 53°FClear

6 am: 50°FClear

8 am: 54°FSunny

10 am: 65°FSunny

More Weather
Most Read Most Commented

Print | E-mail to a friend SCHOOLS

BOE to meet about property

June 28, 2009 @ 10:35 PM

BILL ROSENBERGER

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- The Cabell County Board of Education has called a special meeting for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 30, to deal with a property matter, but officials decline to say whether it has to do with the board's pursuit of property now owned by Prestera Center for Mental Health Services.

Because it is a property matter, school officials are not required to disclose much information, and much of the meeting is expected to take place in executive session. But the agenda indicates that possible action could be taken on acquisition of property and pending litigation after discussion with legal counsel.

Neither schools spokesman Jedds Flowers nor Bob Hansen, executive director of Prestera, would comment on whether the meeting has to do with the University Heights property sought by the school system for a new middle school.

The meeting will be at Cabell County Schools' central office, 2850 5th Ave., Huntington.

The University Heights property on Route 60 is the only property that the school board has recently pursued publicly. It voted in late January to utilize the government power of eminent domain to acquire the property.

Prestera paid Marshall University $2.31 million for the property early this year. The bid was $410,000 more than what the school board offered in the closed-bid process in an effort to gain the 14-acre site for a new consolidated middle school for Enslow and Beverly Hills students.

Marshall University Board of Governors voted 12-1 at its November 2008 meeting to accept the higher bid from Prestera Center, which had plans to renovate the apartments and consolidate its addiction and mental health treatment services. But within week of closing on the deal in January, the school board approved the eminent domain process.

However, an official filing has never been made by the school board.

The only thing to officially be done at the courthouse was the filing of a civil complaint by Prestera Center. Two county residents -- historic preservationist Karen Nance and Susan Gillette -- joined the complaint, which was filed March 18.

Since the filing, both school Superintendent William Smith and Hansen have confirmed that attorneys have been involved in negotiations to avoid potential legal costs associated with the eminent domain process.