July 2009 Iron River Documents - Comment

I received an email with ideas regarding the
article on this subject and it is worth some
discussion. The sender asked that their name not
be used, and so it is not. This article is an
opinion piece and offered as opinions offered
by individuals.

Next, email, with my comments following:

=========================================================

Hello Bill,

No surprise with the resolution on the middle school.
Past history bears out how the school district Iron
River, Stambaugh and now maybe West Iron disposed of
its no longer needed property. The Central School
being the latest and the Lincoln School before.

The Lincoln School was sold to a private individual
who stripped it what he wanted and then was left for
years in disrepair until he was told to raze the
structure or the city would. He razed the building
and left the rubble were you see it now if you drive
by.

The Central School was sold to a prominent individual
who with his sons used it for storage and also stripped
it for their needs. He sold to a (descriptive deleted)
in IR who could not keep it in repair and the city
picked it up and you know the story from there.

As for Nelson field, the schools (Stambaugh and Iron
River) and now West Iron never had a field of their
own and relied on Stambaugh and now Iron River to rent
them Nelson. I do believe West Iron is the only school
district not to have their own football field etc. The
city as in the Managers' report has been waiving or
reducing the rent for a number of years. Now that the
city wants to have the full cost of the rent restored,
the school is calling FOUL.. I do believe they should
pay or no play.

Interesting doc on delinquent tax payment and who or
whom might be trying to retain some money because of
their shortfall. The shortfall being speculation on
my part and the county being in the need of cash to
pay bills??

Yours,


(signature withheld by request)


PS I would prefer that my name not be made known.

Thanks

===========================================================

Several of us discussing this as we phone one
another or meet about town have a problem with
the city's resolution as a form of an attempted
restraint imposed by one taxing unit of local
government upon another at the same political
level.

The history above has no bearing on future acts.
We must assume that the West Iron school boards
of the past and their administrations acted in
good faith. No one can ask more than that. The
subsequent history of the former Lincoln and
Central schools is not the responsibility of
the school board, past or present.

The only thing I'm aware of that has liability
reverting to the last known responsible party
is, for some quirky reason, a ladder.

If the City of Iron River is so very concerned
about the Middle School building, then the
hands on responsibly preventive mechanism would
be for the City to procure the property themselves
and see to its disposition as they see fit. I
understand there's an amount of money in the
School District's budget for one year's
maintenance.

If the city takes the building over and cannot,
within some predetermined time frame, find a
suitable owner/tenant then the city will have
some funds available, from the maintenance fund,
towards tearing the building down and holding
the property, a prime commercial site, for future
sale for use once the local economy improves. Or
sell it now at a small price to a land speculator
and start to immediately collect property taxes.

We're talking about an 80 year old building with
all the problems that age entails. I understand
that presently the roof needs repair or replace-
ment. That's not an inexpensive item on a multi-
story building of this size.

There is a sense, repeated to me by others, that
if a reliable purchaser cannot be found promptly,
the building should be demolished.

Bill Vajk