Crystal Buys Cavanagh School

Well the city of Crystal must not be broke. According to the Sun Post they just bought Cavanagh School;

The Robbinsdale District 281 School Board on Feb. 21 approved a purchase agreement relating to the sale of the Cavanagh School property to Crystal’s Economic Development Authority. The total purchase price for the property at 5400 Corvallis Ave. N., is $956,000. Closing is expected to take place by Feb. 13, 2013.

Where does Crystal come up with $956,000 from? All they do is claim their broke!

Crystal City Manager Anne Norris said last week that the City Council would like to see senior housing on the west side of the site and maintain the east side as open space, as it is now. Some of the land at the Cavanagh site already has been taken for road construction on Highway 81. The streets are being reconstructed, Highway 81 is being redeveloped, and rapid transit is coming to the highway.

Yes and this is the transit oriented development we’ve been talking about. Force mass transit on us and then cram as many people as you can along the transit line so you can control them.

“We are working with a potential developer, but there is no development agreement yet,” Norris said, adding that demolition could occur late in 2012 or early in 2013.

Nice to know we spent nearly $1 million with no plan! How long will we sit on this??

The school opened in 1958 and closed in 1977 due to declining enrollment. It was named for the late Bill Cavanagh of Robbinsdale, a 35-year member of the Robbinsdale School Board who served from 1927 to 1962. Cavanagh, who had been a contractor and builder in Robbinsdale, died in 1978 at the age of 84.

The building has housed a variety of programs since the elementary school closed 35 years ago. Its currently is home to the Highview Alternative Program, as well as an Early Childhood Center that includes Early Childhood Special Education and Creative Play.

District 281 will continue to use the building for the remainder of this school year. Then Highview is expected to move to the Sandburg Learning Center in Golden Valley. The early childhood programs will be housed at New Hope Learning Center. The sale of Cavanagh follows recommendations in 2011 from the district’s divesture committee, which said the building should be put on the market.

Also in line with the divestiture committee’s recommendation, District 281 last year sold the former Hosterman School, 5530 Zealand Ave. N., New Hope, to Intermediate District 287. A new facility currently is under construction on the site that will serve special needs students from the northwest suburbs, similar to District 287’s facility in Richfield. District 281 officials also are negotiating with the city of New Hope for the sale of the Winnetka Learning Center, 7940 55th Ave. N., New Hope.

The school district’s committee last year recommended that the site, including the soccer field west of Winnetka Learning Center, be put on the market. As with Cavanagh, the site is being used while Sandburg Middle School in Golden Valley is leased to District 287. Programs at the Winnetka site are scheduled to move to Sandburg once the new District 287 school is completed on the Hosterman property.

The school district recently demolished the former Highview School building at 4701 Zealand Ave. N., New Hope, in line with the committee’s recommendation, since it was determined that the building had little value.

Here’s a question; why can’t District 281 simply sell the land to a developer? Why does the city need to be involved?