The Oconto Falls School Board has decided to deed the Jefferson School lot to a local historical association. With a unanimous vote on Nov. 10, the board agreed to transfer ownership to the Oconto Falls Area Heritage Center.
The lots are valued at about $13,000, according to an estimate by a local real estate agent.
The Oconto Falls Heritage Center plans to develop a historical attraction at the Jefferson School site, with the abandoned Spruce School as its centerpiece. Spruce School, 7904 County Road A, Lena, educated generations of Spruce-area students before closing in June 2012.
The Heritage Center would like to purchase the two-room schoolhouse from the school district, move it to the Jefferson School property and open it for historical tours.
“We feel a fantastic opportunity is at hand, not only to utilize Jefferson property but also to save Spruce,” said Dale Seelig, of the Oconto Falls Heritage Center.
For the past year, the School Board has discussed ways to clear the title for the land, without reaching a definitive answer.
Although one parcel at the site has no restrictions for its use or sale, the other parcel has conditions dating back about 140 years. If the land is no longer used for educational purposes, it reverts to the original owners, the Volk family, or their heirs. Legal consultants hired by the school district in 1996 identified 40 heirs, but no consensus could be reached among them regarding the land.
According to recent opinion provided by the school’s attorney, when Jefferson School closed in 1995, the district ceased to own the lot. The opinion added more uncertainty to the question of ownership.
Seelig reassured the School Board that the Heritage Center is a registered, nonprofit organization capable of handling any legal entanglements that might occur and anxious to develop the historical attraction.
“We have a small group of people who are dedicated to see this thing through,” he said.
He said the organization has been stymied by the School Board’s hesitancy to decide what to do with the land. Fundraising has been slow for the project, estimated to cost $150,000, but Seelig was confident it would pick up once the center acquired the land, allowing it to promote a more definitive proposal to donors.
School Board member Charles O’Harrow said he preferred to deed the land to the city, which could then work with the Heritage Center to develop the property.
“If there is an issue down the road about the property needing attention or the Heritage Center not being able to take care of the property, the city’s in the position to take care of the issue,” he said.
The property has been incorporated into the city’s Pine Grove Park, and school representatives in June asked the Oconto Falls City Council to consider taking ownership of the parcel. Aldermen did not show support nor express opposition to taking ownership of the land.
“If the city was concerned about this, maybe they’d say ‘Whoa, here’s an opportunity. Maybe we should jump all over this and try to acquire the property,’ and they have not, over months and months,” School Board member Jan Stranz said.
School Board member Ken Harter said the land will pass to a corporation, not an individual, which offers some assurance the property will be maintained. As a corporation, the Heritage Center has a dissolution clause defining how things would be handled if the organization folds.
“My interest is to get out from underneath this,” Harter said.
Members of the Heritage Center will be responsible for drafting the deed, which will be reviewed by the school’s attorney before the deal is finalized.
Seelig also asked the School Board to give the Heritage Center time to raise money to purchase Spruce School, before selling it to another party, but the School Board wasn’t willing to take if off the market.
The asking price for Spruce School is $65,000, and potential buyers have expressed interest in the property, put on the market in October 2012 for $90,000. Seelig said he would talk to the real estate agent about the Heritage Center’s options.
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