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2009-11-20

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2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 11:34 AM

File photo/The Ottawa Herald

Ottawa School Board recently voted to start the process of leasing the former Hawthorne Elementary School building to Grace Community Fellowship, an Ottawa church. The building has been vacant for nearly two years.

Church planning move into former school

School district drafting lease-purchase contract for former Hawthorne facility

By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer

Grace Community Fellowship church members say they are taking things one day at a time.

After all, the church still has to work out a lease-purchase agreement, remodeling projects, costs and other items before it can call the old Hawthorne Elementary School, 501 S. Poplar St., Ottawa, its permanent home.

“If Hawthorne becomes ours, we want the community to know we’ll take care of it and honor the good memories made there in everything we do,” church member Lisa Wellman said.

After several months of debate on what the old school should be used for, Ottawa School Board members Monday night voted to move forward with an agreement with the church to lease and eventually own the building.

“We’re in the process now of coming up with a lease-purchase contract,” Superintendent Dean Katt said. “Some other details also need to be negotiated.”

Katt said if the contract, which will be discussed at a future school board meeting, is approved, the church would lease the building for $1,500 month. The district would ask for the first year’s payments — $18,000 — in advance, with a total purchase price of $100,000, he said.

As with any property purchase, Wellman said the church’s session, which is made up of the pastor and a group of elders, and the congregation would have to approve the purchase of Hawthorne.

At previous school board meetings earlier this summer, members discussed leasing the building to either Grace Community Fellowship or East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corp.

Members eventually decided not to lease the building and pursue other options, like keeping it for school use. Using it to house other programs that are using leased buildings — like the adult education program — was an interest of school board members.

But the cost to improve the building for the school’s use, which had been estimated to be at least $560,000, was too high, Katt said. Needed improvements included such items as new windows, an elevator and mechanical system replacements.

“The cost was just prohibitive for us,” he said.

Wellman said church members are excited about the possibility of owning Hawthorne. Without a building, the church’s more than 200 members have worshiped at Washburn Towers, Fifth and Main streets, Ottawa.

“We still have some work to do before we have a permanent home,” Wellman said. “We’re just taking things one day at a time to see what God has in store for us.”

Jenalea Myers can be e-mailed at jmyers@ottawaherald.com.