St. Paris approached the district about the property. The difference in the auditor’s value and what the village offered is more than $603,000.
“The village of St. Paris expressed an interest in the property about six months ago,” said Matt Curtis, Graham’s interim superintendent. “The board of education accepted that offer at the board of education meeting.”
He added that the board had the property appraised by an outside appraiser, Consolidated Appraisal Service Company, in March 2014. The market value of the property came in just over $33,000.
The village owns the baseball fields and the waste water plant around the high school property.
“We just knew there was an opportunity we wanted to act on,” said Joe Samson, village administrator for St. Paris.
He would not disclose the village’s future plans for the property.
“There are no future plans because we don’t own the property,” Samson said. “It would be premature to say anything.”
Under the Ohio Revised Code, selling the school property to St. Paris, another taxing authority, is allowed.
The district still operates school buses from the property but intends to move the operation to its new bus garage location.
“The district purchased the former Mad River Lumber Company from the owners,” Don Burley said, operations and services supervisor for the district, of the new bus garage. “We found great savings in purchasing the property and doing upgrades.”
The district’s goal is to release ownership of the property to St. Paris by the end of the year.
“Once an agreement is approved by the council, there will be lots of discussion about what to do with the building,” Samson said.
According to Burley, from 2000 to 2014 the building was used in various ways, including used for storage.
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