Jefferson County rejects bid for old school, exploring use for elections office

After nearly an hour of discussions in closed session, the Jefferson County Commission voted unanimously Nov. 14 to reject a $279,000 bid for the old Louisville school building and begin looking into the possibility of utilizing parts of the facility for a new board of elections office.

Commissioner Wayne Davis moved to reject the bid, saying that it did not bring the amount of money the board had expected.

The 17,000 square-foot building complex, originally built in the 1950s as the county’s first consolidated school for African Americans before mandatory integration, and the 16.68-acre lot on which it sits on the bypass in Louisville, has been appraised at $500,000. The Jefferson County School Board gave the property, which has also served as Louisville High School and more recently as Louisville Middle School, to the commissioners for $1 after construction of a new consolidated county middle school was completed five years ago.

The property, located at 1301 School Street, was marketed through Govdeals.com, with bidding running from Oct. 23 through Nov. 6.

“We had over 80 people looking at the property while it was bidding, which Govdeals said was a record number for that activity,” said County Administrator Jerry Coalson. “There were a large number of bids placed by different people. The link was sent out to over 1,300 developers.”

The highest bidder was an investor out of New York, who Coalson said has other Georgia properties that are primarily used for indoor self-storage, and that would have been the likely use for this property as well.

“The commissioners did not feel that was enough money for the property, so for now they have declined the bid,” Coalson said.

In the same closed session, the county reviewed several properties it was considering for a new elections office, and each of those properties would have cost more than they would have gotten for this much larger building they already owned, Coalson said.

Commissioner Wayne Davis moved the county inspect the old school building, which has sat empty for around five years, for mold, mildew and asbestos and then develop a viable option for using the property for county offices, specifically for the Board of Elections.

In the days following the meeting the county contracted with a certified inspector who has been through the old school.

“There is mold all throughout the building, but it is a surface mold you get when you turn your air conditioner off for a while,” Coalson said. “He says that it is not the harmful stuff. We don’t know of any roof leaks. So we are going to go through and spray the entire building with a mold killer. Remove all the furniture. Put the building on insurance, clean it up and start a rehab project.”

The biggest expense is expected to be in the engineering and replacing the HVAC units which are 30 years old. The rehab will include replacing the tile flooring, repainting and replacing the older ceiling tiles. “The elections office will be the first to move over,” Coalson said. “Then the commissioners can decide if they want to put the rest of us out there. They’re probably going to want to. If you are going to heat and air condition one section of the building you’ve got to do the whole thing. But it will be a lot less expensive than building a new building.”

The school is in a lot better physical shape that Coalson said he originally thought.

“The main front building and the little hallway with the bathrooms that goes back, just those two sections are a little over 30,000 square feet. That’s 30 percent bigger than the new building we were looking at to put everybody in,” Coalson said. “We’re starting now. I’m calling the architect today and get him started on the HVAC system.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: County rejects bid for old school, exploring use for elections office