| The 14 acres represented in yellow is the land the board of education declared as surplus. It must now be offered to the county and city at market value. |
A request from a local developer and the non-use of property behind Mont Harmon Junior High resulted in the Carbon Board of Education declaring about 14 acres of school district land as surplus last Wednesday.
“The land in question is mostly hillside and cliffs so it is relatively useless to us,” said education boardmember Grady McEvoy during the discussion at the April 9 . “But we have to follow some parameters before we decide to sell it to a private individual.”
The first parameter that the board had to follow is to offer the land to Price City and Carbon County. The city or county would have to pay market appraised value to acquire the property. In the event Price city or the county want to purchase the land from the district, the property could only be used for a park, a type of open space or a municipal building.
If the public entities do not want the land, then the board can make the decision to sell the land to Dave O’Brien, who approached the school district in February concerning the purchase of the property.
Up until the meeting, the education officials had a question on whether the board would have to advertise the land and take bids on the property. But shortly before the board meeting on Wednesday, the question was answered.
“We asked the attorney general’s office about this and they told us that the board could sell the land to whom they wanted once the other parameters were met,” said Carbon School trict’s superintendent, Patsy Bueno.
After O’Brien had approached the board, the group gave McEvoy the authority to negotiate with him on the land deal, but McEvoy said he hadn’t done too much with the situation because the board had to declare the property surplus and offer it to the local governments before any substantial talks could take place.
| The 14 acres, including the cliffs, that Carbon School District owns behind Mont Harmon Junior High has been declared surplus by the board of education. |
The property in question takes in the entire front of the cliffs behind the junior high, and part of a flat spot on the top of Wood Hill. Within that flat spot is a small area the district gave to the county for a radio relay station. Most of the property as it presently exists is on a steep grade or is vertical. The well known “C’s” painted on the cliffs many years ago as a symbol of Carbon High and at one time Carbon College as well, exist in this area. The College of Eastern Utah also has a sign that they raise and light up at certain times on the property as well. It is unclear as to what might happen to these symbols if the property passes into private hands.
On the east end of the property the district is attempting to work out some kind of trade with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that has a meeting house near there for some property and a building the church owns in Sunnyside near the new Bruin Point Elementary School. Those talks are still in motion.
If the county and city say they don’t want the property, McEvoy will begin talks with O’Brien about the land, with possible action on the situation by the board taking place in the next month or two.