May 8, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The Board of Education has now settled on a site for construction of a new Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school to replace Smithville Elementary.
During its regular monthly meeting Thursday night by video conference, the board voted to purchase 24.5 acres of property belonging to the owners of the Family Medical Center on North Congress Boulevard (Highway 56) in Smithville. The purchase price is $18,000 per acre for a total cost of about $441,000.
Although the board has the money to buy the land the allocation must be included in the 2020-21 school budget and adopted by the county commission this summer. The purchase is also subject to favorable core drilling and traffic study by the Tennessee Department of Transportation for which the school district will also have to bear the cost.
The property, adjacent to the Northside Elementary School campus, is owned by Dr’s Cripps, Rhody & Hooper, General Partnership. It was one of two sites considered by the board. The other is property owned by the Steve Colvert family also located near Northside Elementary.
A committee, appointed by Board Chairman Danny Parkerson and made up of fellow board members W.J. (Dub) Evins III and Doug Stephens along with Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, recently met with the board’s architect Upland Design Group and their civil engineer to weigh the pros and cons of each site. The committee then met with the landowners to negotiate a price. Owners of both sites reduced their asking prices to $20,000 per acre for the Colvert property and $18,000 per acre for the Family Medical Center land. Aside from the purchase price, the committee and the architects and civil engineer felt the Family Medical Center site was more suitable than the Colvert land, a portion of which has some wetland issues. The Colvert property could also raise traffic congestion concerns with TDOT in that the site might have to be accessed through the existing Northside Elementary School entrance while a separate entrance could be established to the proposed new school on the Family Medical Center site.
During Thursday night’s meeting, Evins said the committee had settled on the Family Medical Center property and was recommending its purchase to the board. Evins made a motion to purchase the land, subject to approval of the core drilling, TDOT study, and the county commission adopting the school board budget including the funds for the land. Stephens offered a second to the motion. All seven board members voted in favor.
In other business the board voted to reject the one and only bid submitted last month for the Tiny House.
Jerry Alsup of Murfreesboro had bid $17,500 to purchase the Tiny House but that was well below the minimum bid of $22,600 established by the board which was the actual cost of construction.
In April the board tabled action on whether to award or reject the bid to give Brad Leach, DCHS Career and Technical Education Director, an opportunity to have some input.
The board had hoped to award a bid for the sale of the Tiny House during the regular monthly meeting in March but after a month of seeking sealed bids none were submitted. In March the board voted to extend the deadline for receiving sealed bids until the April meeting.
The Tiny House was recently completed by students in the DCHS Residential and Commercial Construction Class. It is located near the Vocational School.