School district purchases former Hy-Vee building

To continue with reconfiguration plans, two properties were purchased by the Newton Community School District at Monday’s school board meeting.

The first property at 1302 First Ave. W. or more commonly known as the former Hy-Vee West building, was purchased from Gralnek-Dunitz for $260,000. The second property is directly west of that property and contains three buildings with a purchase price of $180,000.

“I think there are multiple rational for this purpose. Number one would be an opportunity for the entities that are presently housed in this facility, which is Emerson Hough, would have a place to go,” Superintendent Bob Callaghan said. “It would provide a footprint on the community for our administration building and it would then provide access for this facility for any education need we have for any educational classrooms if the board so determined that we need more classrooms some time down the road.”

The purchase of the property will be paid with sales tax money. A top end renovation price of $2 million was given for the former Hy-Vee, a 20,000 square foot building. Along with that building and its 3.49 acres, a second piece of land was donated to the district. The land, which is located directly northeast of the building, is 1.89 acres and has no buildings.

The two properties are located next to the district’s transportation center, and will create a new atmosphere for Newton’s west gate entrance. The property that houses three buildings will see two of the buildings demolished, leaving the third 2,050 square foot building for renovation. It could possibility to house AEA.

“We looked at several locations in the Newton area. The locations that met that 20,000 square foot threshold were small. This is good shell of a property for us,” Callaghan said.

Jack Suttek, maintenance supervisor gave an update on the initial asbestos report for Berg Middle School. For testing alone, the district will pay Ames Environmental $2,910 to tell if and how much asbestos is present and where it needs cleaned up. Suttek said there are 85 areas to be sampled but that there is no known asbestos, only suspected asbestos in items that are known to possibly contain in the time period it was produced.

“We feel that a $2,900-$3,000 cost to analyze all of these areas is well worth it because of the vast amount of coverage,” Andy Elbert, board president said.

In other business:

• A new food service truck was purchased from Freightliner of Des Moines for $59,684.

• Two-way radios and an upgrade to the current transportation communications system was approved and purchased from Electronic Engineering Co. for $28,685.

• A used pickup truck was purchased for $21,681 from Noble All American to be used as a new technology vehicle.

• Five students and their chaperon, Karla Cazett, will travel to Minneapolis for the DECA 2014 Central Region Leadership Conference December 5-7.

• Callaghan along with several board members will attend the IASB Education Session on a Q&A Panel — Superintendent Evaluation: Compliance and Beyond.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com.