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MCAS agrees to buy property for Pine SchoolBy


Deborah Sederberg, The News-Dispatch

The new Pine Elementary School likely will be built across from the old WIMS transmitter in Porter County.


At the Tuesday meeting of the Michigan City Area Schools board, the board passed a resolution agreeing to buy 66 acres in the southwest quadrant of County Line Road and Porter County Road 1675 North.

The decision was not unanimous. Board members Jim Kintzele and Beryle Burgwald voted against the measure. Board member Clyde Zeek was absent. Members Rick Carlson, Kathy Lee, Nathaniel Gipson and President Jeff Jones voted affirmatively.

The land currently belongs to the Sisters of the Holy Cross, the Catholic religious order of nuns which sponsors Saint Mary's College in South Bend and formerly taught at St. Mary's, Queen of All Saints and Notre Dame elementary schools as well as Marquette High School.

The board likely will pay $561,000, or $8,500 per acre for the property.

Business manager Theo Boone recommended the purchase.

“I would not support putting a school on that property even if it were donated to us,” Kintzele said. He said he believes too much of the land is tied up in wetlands. He also wanted to know why the board would buy 66 acres when it needs only 12 acres to build the school.

The current site of Pine School contains no wetlands, Burgwald said, and he favors putting the new school on the old site.

Carlson said the board has been exploring the possibility of locating the school between Brown Road and County Line Road for some time. “The part of the land we would build on is high and dry,” Carlson said. “The school would be surrounded by trees.”

The most important reason for building at that location, Carlson said, is cost. “Believe it or not, when you factor in the cost of running power, sewer, water to the present Pine school site and compare it to running it to the site at 1675 North, we still come out about $600,000 ahead, even with the land purchase. Plus it puts us closer to our population center (for Pine School) and closer to U.S. 20 while still being in Porter County.”

Both Carlson and Superintendent Mike Harding said the nuns were not interested in selling fewer than the 66 acres.

The wetlands would be some distance from the school and Carlson said he believes they will provide an exciting opportunity for the study of biology and the environment.

In another matter, Harding said school will be closed today because roads were expected to be dangerous and some perhaps impassable due to blowing and drifting snow.

Today makes the sixth time schools have been closed because of inclement weather. The first two were in August, following a severe thunderstorm and consequent power outages.

Harding said he will appeal for a waiver to the Indiana Department of Education for the summer storm and for the days the school closed because of extreme cold. “But they're not likely to grant a waiver for snow days,” he said.

The calendar likely will be extended and perhaps the graduation day will be changed, he said.