MLSD approves $1.4 million in land purchases
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board unanimously approved the purchase of about 6 acres immediately east of Moses Lake High School for $1.4 million on Thursday.
The three parcels will be used to improve emergency and first responder access and security at Moses Lake School. The district is working on plans to replace doors, create a single access point for students and visitors, and build a second parking lot for drop offs and emergency vehicles.
“All three of these are very small parcels, they give us better access to arterials and are safety related,” said Superintendent Josh Meek.
The district bought parcel 110868125, a 0.43-acres patch of land located immediately south of BBSI Moses Lake fronting Pilgrim Drive with a 2018 assessed value of $89,355, for $115,000 from Penelope Thiel, a resident of Southern California. According to online records at the Grant County Assessor’s office, the parcel last sold for $500,000 in 2009.
Immediately south is parcel 110868126, also a 0.43-acre lot with a 2018 assessed value of $89,6356, which the district bought for $109,000 from Othello resident Bill Schlagel. According to assessor’s office records, the parcel last sold for $99,073 in 2008.
Finally, the district also bought parcel 110868401, a 5.26-acre parcel that curves along Pilgrim Street with a 2018 assessed value of $760,775, for $1,203,420 from Kenmore resident Michael Rogers. According to assessor records, up until 2016, the parcel was valued at $795,685.
According to Eric Johnson, MLSD operations director, the prices do not include closing costs.
Meek said all land purchases have to be made from the district’s capital budget, so the school board will have to vote to transfer the money from the general fund to the capital fund at its next meeting.
As for the work the district has planned at MLHS, Meek said the target is to get the portable classrooms moved, the doors replaced, and access limited before school starts, while the new parking lot and fencing would probably not be finished until September or October.
“We should be able to do this without touching the existing parking lot,” Johnson said.
Meek also told school board members that the long range planning committee, which held its fifth and supposedly final meeting last Tuesday, June 12, will need one more meeting to finalize its recommendation on the district’s future construction plans.
The committee has scheduled one final meeting for Wednesday, June 27, Meek said, after which it was have a final recommendation for the school board.
“I recommend receiving the report as part of a study session to really dig into it deeply,” he said.
However, the arrival of summer is complicating when the board will be able to review. Meek recommended a Thursday, July 5, study session, noting that he and his family will be on vacation when the board meets on July 12, and he feels a responsibility to see this planning process through to its conclusion.
The planning committee was created late last year as the school board grappled with how to deal with overcrowding and student capacity issues in the wake of a year-long lawsuit to block the February, 2017, school construction bond and last November’s board election that saw the unseating of two incumbents and their replacement by people more critical of the proposed second high school.
The committee is considering several options, including a combined 7-12 junior-senior high and a 600-student mini high school south of the current campus. However, it has not yet made a final recommendation, and is evaluating a number of options to deal with projected crowding, as well as significant wear, at nearly all of the MLSD schools.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.