The Hensley Township Trustee is looking for public comment on plans of what could be done with the former Indian Creek Elementary School.
Beth Baird, trustee, is hosting a meeting at 6 p.m. May 1 at the Trafalgar Public Library, 424 S. Tower St., to get additional comments on the proposed sale and use of the building.
Hensley Township has until June 12 to to accept or decline the property from the school district. The township does not have an immediate use or need for the nearly five-acre property on Pearl Street in Trafalgar, but would consider facilitating a sale if a buyer was interested, she said.
“I want someone to be able to take it after I receive it,” Baird said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
About eight interested people or groups have looked at the property and at least one has made an offer to buy the property. Two appraisals will determine the sale price of the property, she said.
Baird wants to work with the community to find a use for the property, with someone buying it and accepting the upkeep, she said.
“Ideally, the township would like to see it reused for a project and use that would provide a significant economic development impact to the community,” she said.
School, town and township officials have been grappling with what to do with the building since it closed in May 2016 and students moved into a 50,000-square-foot wing attached to Indian Creek Intermediate School for the 2016-2017 school year.
The Trafalgar Town Council voted last June to hire a consultant that could find out exactly what could go into the building and how much it would cost to convert the building for possible uses.
Now the building has officially been offered to the township, and Baird is tasked with figuring out if they should keep the building and facilitate another use or deny the building, which would then force the school to keep it, she said.
If Baird decides to decline the property, then the school district would be forced to keep the property for two years and be on a list of available properties for charter schools. The school district would then be responsible for the upkeep of the building.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
What: Public meeting on the former Indian Creek Elementary School
When: 6 p.m. May 1
Where: Trafalgar branch of the Johnson County Public Library, 424 Tower St.
At a glance: Hensley Township has been offered the empty building that was once Indian Creek Elementary School. They now have until June 12 to decide to help facilitate a sale of the building or have the school district keep it.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
