Hinton School District gives property owners final chance to sell

Hinton Community School Board members Monday made a final offer to purchase 8 acres before beginning eminent domain proceedings to obtain the land.

The offer includes $235,000 to purchase the land and $5,000 for expenses related to moving livestock and equipment from the cattle operation there.

Property owners Kevin and Annette Held have until May 15 to accept or reject the offer. The Helds could not be reached by the Daily Sentinel seeking comment.

The school district plans to build a new pre-kindergarten through elementary school and competitive gymnasium on the 8 acres, which are adjacent to the existing school building.

The lowest appraised value for those acres is $213,000 so the district's offer is $22,000 more than that amount.

Robert Held, school board president, said even if the Helds reject the offer and eminent domain proceedings begin, negotiations can still continue.

"That would certainly be our desire to be able to work something out," Robert Held said. "We're just taking this step in case we're not successful in negotiating a final settlement."

A year ago the school district made a $400,000 offer for the property and relocations costs.

After that offer was rejected, the board started investigating using eminent domain to obtain the 8 acres. Using that process limits how much the district can offer above the appraised value of the property and for relocation expenses, Robert Held said.

He said the current $240,000 offer reflects those parameters.

"The board's hands are somewhat tied," Held said. "We're doing what we can based upon the limitations that we have."

The school board approved the resolution adopting the final offer -- and proceeding with using eminent domain if it's not accepted -- in a in a 4-1 decision.

Board member Randy Riediger voted against the resolution, as he has previously, because he doesn't like the idea of obtaining the land using eminent domain.

"My family has had that used against us back in the '60s and that," Riediger said. "Even though we took it to court and won, it was a no-win situation."

The school board also discussed when to hold a bond election, where the public will vote either for or against using property taxes to help pay for construction of the school.

"The earliest we could be ready to have the election this year would be September," said Superintendent Al Steen. "It takes a lot of work. It's not done overnight. We can't do it. It has to be a committee that does it."

If the board decides to wait with the bond issue, the next time available for an election would be Feb. 2, 2010 as there are only four times a year it can be held.

Construction money would come from several sources including roughly $5.4 million in property tax revenue. Since the tax rate was lowered by 85 percent per $100,000 for the next school year to $2.70, taxes would not increase much for residents, Steen said.

"We have roughly close to $10 million for the project," he said. "It sounds like a lot, but it's not."

Originally, construction of the pre-kindergarten elementary and competitive gymnasium was about $12 million. That estimate is a couple years old, Steen said.

"At some point we need a motion to move forward on the bond issue," he said. "We would need to start organizing in June for a September bond election."

The board took no action but will study the bond issue more thoroughly at its monthly board meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 20.