MT. VERNON - Mt. Vernon Township High School has purchased 82 acres on Wells Bypass to construct a new school.
“This is a great evening for the community of Mt. Vernon Township High School,” board president Carl Miller said.
The property is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Wells Bypass and Ambassador Lane. The school is purchasing the property for $1.2 million from Ermajean Weir and Janell Bayer.
“The cost is well within our budget for land acquisition in our original estimates,” MVTHS Superintendent Dr. Mike Smith said. “The next step is to have a series of phases of testing completed — geological and environmental tests that are required. We’re allowing three months to get the results from testing back.”
Smith said “all things going well” the district would be able to begin preliminary site work by the middle or late summer.
“This is a great location,” Miller said. “It’s very buildable, level, flat, just what we were looking for.”
According to a news release presented by the board, numerous sites were evaluated and discussed for the new school, with Friday’s action bringing 11 months of discussion, research, study and negotiation to a close. The process included participation from stakeholders across the district, the city and county.
“From numerous sites that were submitted by property owners, an initial list of 16 was identified,” information states. “Sites were then reviewed further by the school board and their architectural firm and construction management firm to develop the ‘best case’ for a short list of possible locations. Sites were evaluated utilizing a number of criteria including size, location, access, adjacency of utilities, existing and needed infrastructure, on and off site development cost projections, buildable acres, district allotted budget for the purchase and development, overall city planning, zoning and development and purchase price. ... the final site needed to be a perfect balance of all of these criteria. The site selected this evening has been determined to fit all of the above criteria the best.”
Mt. Vernon Mayor Mary Jane Chesley was on hand for the signing of the contracts, and said it was a great day for District 201 and a great day for the city.
“We look forward to partnering with you on this project,” Chesley said. “This project is one of the components in the city’s Comprehensive Plan and we support the school and its efforts to build a new school.”
The city council has committed to provide needed infrastructure at the site in an amount not to exceed $2.4 million and will include water and sewer lines, storm sewer lines, curbs, guttering and entrances to the property, Chesley said.
“We’re doing that as we would for any of our larger employers and businesses,” Chesley added.
Smith said the district is continuing to move forward on design engineering on the new school, and is expected to be ready to go out for bids on construction in the spring of 2013. full story
