Parks Department purchases former North Anderson Elementary School

ANDERSON — After years of talks, the Anderson Parks and Recreation Department has finalized an agreement with Anderson Community School Corp. to purchase the former North Anderson Elementary School.

“This will allow us to expand all our programs,” Fred Reese, superintendent of the Parks Department, said. “And we’re looking at partnering with other agencies.”

Reese said the city made an offer Tuesday for the property, then it was approved by the school board at its meeting that night. Currently, the Parks Department administration and senior center are located next to Shadyside Memorial Park at 101 E. Oak St., a little more than a block south of the school.

“The greatest thing is this is going to start a new partnership with our school system,” Reese said.

At the meeting on Tuesday night, Reese and Mayor Kris Ockomon made comments about the state of the current facility and the need for a larger building.

“Kris is concerned that the Parks Department needs to be more visible, and he wants to focus on the quality-of-life issue,” Reese said.

When Ockomon saw the sign on the Oak Street facility that warned people about asbestos in the building, he was motivated to move the Parks Department, Reese said.

“Exposing the public, exposing our employees, it’s ridiculous,” he said. “I have to give (the mayor) kudos.”

The sale price of $75,000 total is well below the appraised price of $114,000, Tobi Jones, president of the school board, said.

The city will pay $15,000 at closing, then $20,000 each year by Aug. 1 until 2011. The money is coming out of the city’s capital improvement fund, which is the revenue from the cigarette tax, City Controller Karen Carpenter said.

“The appraisal doesn’t take into account that one boiler needs work and the fact that it sat there for a few years without use, so it needs painting,” she said.

The school building also has “elementary-sized plumbing,” Jones said, so the city will have to replace that for the adults who will use the facility.

North Anderson Elementary School, 112 E. Vineyard St., closed its classrooms in 2005. The students were sent to Eastside Elementary School.

“When we were first approached, it was right after we closed the building, and we weren’t ready to sell it,” Jones said. “The city administration, the former administration, wasn’t as open in wanting to work with the school system, so we held it off for awhile. We think the cooperation between the board and the city is absolutely imperative and this is very important.”