PORT TOWNSEND — A new police station? Community gardens? A location for the Port Townsend Farmers Market?
These are just a few ideas city of Port Townsend officials are discussing as possibilities for the Mountain View Elementary school campus, which the Port Townsend School District plans to vacate this summer.
But first, they will need to come to an agreement with the public school district on a lease for the land at 1919 Blaine St.
The city has long operated the swimming pool on the Mountain View campus. The pool is the only public pool in Port Townsend.
On Monday night, the Port Townsend council, on a 4-1 vote, gave City Manager David Timmons authorization to discuss a lease agreement with the district. Council members Catharine Robinson and Mark Welch were absent.
The dissenting voice came from City Council member Laurie Medlicott, who is concerned about the financial responsibility.
“This pushes a problem of the schools onto the city,” Medlicott said.
“I am not at all comfortable with leasing this property. It’s not fiscally responsible.”
Mayor Michelle Sandoval said that if the city were to enter into a lease with the school district, the intent would be to keep the facility a public asset.
“Maybe in the future they do need to take back the school,” Sandoval said.
“Then yippee for us, because we kept the area in the public for the interim period.”
Timmons said that the vote does not represent a commitment to lease the property.
“We want to see if we can come up with a mutual package to present to the council and School Board in the near future.”
Port Townsend School Superintendent Tom Opstad said he expects to speak with Timmons near the end of April regarding a possible lease.
Opstad also said he intends to advertise the location for other interested parties.
“I believe this has been debated a lot, and it will be debated a lot more,” said Deputy Mayor George Randels.
“But we need to see something concrete here.
“When we get a serious proposal in front of us, we can give it a serious discussion.”
Possible uses
Timmons said that a police station, community gardens and farmer’s market were all possible uses for the site.
Also being discussed are upgrades to the pool facilities, extended hours for the YMCA to operate in the building and a possible location for a day-care facility currently operating out of the Grant Street Elementary campus.
“There are a lot of different ideas,” Timmons said.
“Right now, they are just ideas. First, we need to talk with them.”
One thing is for certain, the location will not be a school when summer comes around.
The Port Townsend School District voted unanimously to close the campus at the end of this school year and authorized Opstad to look for potential leasing partners.
“The key here is that the School Board wants to look at leasing, not selling,” Opstad said.
“We want to keep looking at that site as a possibility for a long-term solution to a possible elementary school.”
Opstad said the district was looking at a short-term lease, from three to five years.
Also in the lease would be language requiring the structure of the campus to remain the same — meaning no permanent changes could be made to structures on the campus.
The School bBoard decided to close the campus at the end of this school year because the district could not maintain a balanced budget if both Mountain View and Grant Street elementary schools were to remain open.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
