School district holds off on resolution to donate land for center

After a lengthy discussion Monday night, the School District 6 board tabled a resolution that would have donated land for a new Boys and Girls Club center on school-owned land.

The resolution didn’t commit the school district to a specific location.

“School District 6 declares approximately 33,000 square feet of land as surplus property to be disposed of. The district intends to donate the property for use by the Boys and Girls Club,” the resolution read.

The resolution also gave any taxpayer in the district the right to appeal the decision in 14 days.

But school board members had problems with the timing of the request. Earlier in the meeting, they approved a request for qualifications for architecture and engineering services to begin the process of planning for elementary school expansion and renovation.

That process would likely start in May and will cost the district about $25,000 to $40,000. It will involve a host of public meetings as the district looks to craft a future for its elementary schools, which are either old, in the case of Glacier Gateway, which has a building that dates back to the 1940s; or too small, like Ruder, which has too many students and not enough classrooms.

The process of coming up with a plan for the schools will take about eight months. The Boys and Girls Club would like to get the fundraising ball rolling as soon as possible and has indicated it would like to break ground as early as this summer.

Board chair Jill Rocksund said she supported the mission on the Boys and Girls Club, but the timing wasn’t right.

“I wish this was happening 10 months from now,” she said.

She also had concerns about the Club’s financial situation — it closed down its Evergreen location and has about $3,000 a month in mortgage debt from a roller rink it owns in Evergreen and a former church it owns in Columbia Falls across the street from Glacier Gateway. If the new center is built, it would shed that debt by selling both structures. The roller rink is already for sale. The idea of the new facility is to have the club come in debt-free. But it still has to raise $5 million.

Board member Barb Riley had problems with the wording of the resolution, which said it would donate to the Boys and Girls Club, when at the last meeting, it was presented as a community center that would house the Boys and Girls Club.

Board member Jim Henjum wondered if the plan to build the center was even the right location. He noted that if one was building a community center, building it near Ruder, which has been suggested, might not be the best spot.

“What about right back here?” suggested Riley, pointing to the lawn behind Glacier Gateway.

But vice chair Dean Chisholm noted it was still a good opportunity for the district to work with the club in future planning for both the school and community’s needs.

But in the end, the board voted to table the resolution as written. It will tinker with the language in the next month and take another stab at it at its next meeting.

Boys and Girls Club Director Cindy Hooker said she understood the board’s concerns.

“I don’t envy your spot,” she said. “I know this is a hard decision.”