GCC sells Civic Center land to city of Ironwood , which already owns building

By MEGAN HUGHES

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Ironwood — The Gogebic Community College Board of Trustees finalized a land sale to the city of Ironwood including and surrounding the Pat O’Donnell Civic Center.

The civic center has been located on campus for 25 years on land that had been leased to the city.

“The civic center has been operating on that property with really no lease since 2007,” said the college’s Vice President of Business Services Chad Lashua.

He said city officials are looking for funding to replace the ice making equipment, and have found they needed to own the property in order to get a grant. “So the thought, working with the city, is that we would sell them the chunk of land under the civic center and a little bit around it.”

The land in the sale surrounding the civic center includes the first row of parking for the parking lot north of the civic center.

“They are required to have adequate parking,” Lashua said. Should the city not receive the grant that requires the parking area to meet qualifications, the city has signed an agreement to sell the parking lot portion of the land back to the college.

The board voted to sell the land for $1.

The board also discussed the city’s involvement with the Mt. Zion Recreation Area on the top of Mt. Zion. The city has developed the park in recent years believing it had been property of the city, but in a recent application for funding, it was discovered that the land is owned by the college. The city is requesting an easement which would allow the city to continue maintaining the area.

During discussion about the easement, board chair Susan Beals raised concern regarding liability of the college should any injury occur on the property.

“If there is an an incident on that road, would we be responsible for it then? Or is the city responsible?” she asked.

The board decided to table any action on the easement until the next meeting, so that clarification could be made regarding concerns.

Also at the meeting, the board voted regarding a proposal from the Gogebic County Fair to use the college’s primary parking lot and the lot next to the civic center for the 2024 fair.

“They would like to have the fair over at the civic center and use the civic center parking lot for rides, animal displays and use our main parking lot for parking,” said President Chris Patritto. “We have gone through our schedule and thought that we wouldn’t really have any problems. We would probably leave the parking lot behind the Lindquist Center for our staff, dorm residents, athletic practice, and behind the Jacob Solin Center for staff.”

The board approved the usage of the primary parking lot and the civic center parking lot by the Gogebic County Fair.