Ironwood purchases former Sleight School

By ZACHARY MARANO

[email protected]

Ironwood - The Ironwood City Commission approved the purchase of the former Sleight Elementary School for $180,000 at a special meeting on Wednesday. The building is located at 108 E. Arch St.

Mayor Kim Corcoran said the city will sell this property to a low- to moderate-income housing developer.

"I know that we are short on housing in Ironwood," Corcoran said. "Housing has been an item for us lately and the commission has talked about this at some of their meetings and hoped to address the housing shortage. It was thought that Sleight School would potentially be the best use option for housing versus letting it go into disrepair"

Interim City Manager Andrew DiGiorgio said that the city has approximately $32,000 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds that can be spent on low- to moderate-income housing. City staff felt that the acquisition of the former school represented a "prime opportunity" to spend those funds.

"If we purchase this, we have some control over it. If we don't purchase it, we don't have any control outside of a couple of things," City Commissioner Jim Mildren said. "Because of us having that HUD money ... and really wanting the people in this town to prosper, I think we should have control over that property."

Mildren said that people who move to the area to work - most recently, the new hires at Luther L. Wright K-12 School - have been unable to find houses or apartments in the city to rent. He also said that some people who have lived in Ironwood all their lives have lost their apartments to development and can't find other places to live.

DiGiorgio said that only recently, city staff learned that the property was listed for sale and a special meeting was called on Tuesday to discuss and consider purchase. Because of the tight timeframe, DiGiorgio said, city staff are still trying to gather information on the property from their records and Ironwood Area Schools.

The city commission learned that one of the issues with the property is inflow and infiltration from the building's roof drains into the sanitary sewer system. Utilities Manager Bob Tervonen said that the city started to require buildings to separate their roof drains from sanitary sewers back in the 1980s.

Tervonen said that most buildings complied with this new requirement, but a recent Stormwater, Asset Management and Wastewater study found that 19 buildings did not separate their roof drains and sanitary sewers, with the Sleight Elementary School being one of them.

On a normal day, the wastewater plant treats a million gallons of sewer water. However, Tervonen said that during heavy rain or snowmelt, an additional 5-10 million gallons of flow can infiltrate the system and raise treatment costs.

Tervonen said that he didn't know the exact costs of separating the roof drains and discharging them into the ground or storm sewer, but he said that either the city or the next property owner will need to address this.

The city commissioned approved the purchase the property and a buy and sell agreement at $180,000 to the property owner, Schuler Investments. Per recommendations from city attorney Tim Dean, this is contingent upon satisfactory inspection and environmental inspection and lead paint disclosure, as well as payment of $517.69 in utilities.

The city commissioned voted 4-0 to approve this resolution Mayor Corcoran and city commissioners Mildren, David Andresen and Nancy Korpela voted yes. City commissioner Rick Semo was absent.

George N. Sleight Elementary School was closed following the 2013-2014 school year and its students were moved to Luther L. Wright K-12 School. Ironwood Area Schools continued to use the building until September 2018, when the building failed a fire safety inspection.