March 29, 2024

Colfax City Council approves gifted land to school district

Colfax City Council had a public discussion about the possibility of gifting a parcel of land to the Colfax-Mingo Community School District to be use for future improvements for the school, which had been proposed at a prior city council workshop.

The first of three readings for the gifting of land school district passed without public input during Monday’s city council meeting, however the council approved the first reading with certain conditions.

“If the city wants to keep this as an 18-hole (disc golf) course there is going to be some cost involved with the redesign,” city administrator Wade Wagoner said.

There were some concerns with the fact that gifting this land would lead to issues with the Frisbee golf course that resides on a portion of the land. That was included in the conditions that, if it is given final approval, the school and city will work together to keep the course at its 18 holes.

“It may not be a big thing for the residents but I think it’s a big draw for our community ... I’d hate to lose it,” councilman Brad Magg said.

There were also other conditions included in the motion including the school covers all legal fees and any portion of the land that is unused would be returned to the city.

“Resolution approving the transfer of real estate property owned by the city of Colfax to the Colfax-Mingo Community School District with the following conditions. Work together to keep the 18-hole golf course and the amendment read, the school to cover legal fees and transfer the unused portions back to the city,” secretary Nancy Earls said.

There were reasons for the condition of having the school and city working together to try and keep the course intact other than keeping the draw of the course there by working with the neighboring land owners to the school.

“I have a hunch that a few of the neighbors would probably work better with the school than they would the city,” Magg said.

The resolution passed its first reading with the second and third readings to follow at future meetings but the outcome for the first reading sat well with the members from the school district who were in attendance.

“The city is seeing how that’s going to help the city overall as well as the school district and gifting us the land is absolutely what we went there with the intent of,” Colfax-Mingo superintendent Erik Anderson said.

In other business:

• Snyder and Associates Civil Engineer Steven Klocke provided an update about the water project that recently had bids come in that were higher than projected. He suggested they split the project up into three projects and do the bidding Dec. 5, 12 and 19 and approve them in the January meeting.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com