When Westfield Elementary School was placed on the list of surplus properties by the county in 2021 there was some hope it could be sold and no longer be the county’s responsibility before the start of the 2022 fiscal year.
The offers for the school could be counted on one hand, and the number of bidding parties totaled fewer than that. The Board of Commissioners accepted the winning bid of $150,000 in March from Danny Golding and Fresh Start Ministry to take over the school and move their church from a leasing situation to a permanent new home.
If only it were that easy.
Surry County Attorney Ed Woltz brought to the commissioners’ attention at their April 17 meeting that the deal with Golding had “hit a snag.”
Now that the school building and grounds had sold, Stokes County emerged from a decades long absence to lay a claim to its share of the sales profit. He told the board that the Stokes Board of Education wanted one third of the proceeds from the sale.
In short, decades ago Stokes County had a one third interest in part of land on which Westfield Elementary sat.
Woltz said that during the due diligence process it was discovered that Stokes County had never deeded or sold that part of the tract to Surry County. The complete records cannot be found, and the counties cannot just wipe their hands of it.
“A settlement cannot be forced between school board and county. It will need to be fairly and equitably negotiated,” he explained.
Woltz told the Surry County board in April 12 email that the Stokes Board of Education was not following the recommendation of their counsel to “quit the claim.”
He also said he was drafting a new letter going out to the Stokes Board of Education’s attorney. “The county has asked the school board to reconsider its offer since neither party was aware of school board’s interest.”
Surry County has, for as long as records can be accessed, paid for the maintenance and upkeep of Westfield Elementary when it was open and after it was closed. “Surry County has paid $88,462 in maintenance costs since 2011. The actual figure is much higher, but our accounting system only goes back 13 years,” Woltz clarified.
“Stokes County school board has never paid a dime in expenses to maintain the facility,” he added which apparently sets the stage for the current standoff.
While Woltz sends another letter to resolve an issue that he was told the Stokes County Board of Education was going to rectify some months ago, the church is feeling pressure to get the matter resolved.
Golding said that Pilot Mountain Rescue and EMS were being gracious but the timeline for the church’s move is beginning to press up against the squad’s desire to begin renovations for their own purposes and move to their own new home.
“They have already built the bays for their trucks, and we have to start clearing out offices so they can start remodeling,” Golding said.
“They will soon want the sanctuary and we will then need somewhere to go, and we cannot even go start doing our remodeling at Westfield so we can move,” meaning even when the counties get this resolved, the church will remain in a holding pattern.
Adding insult to injury is that Fresh Start Ministry is already missing out on money on the deal as the counties work out the issue.
Golding said that coaches have approached him to rent out the ball fields at the former school for yearly tournaments. Not being able to accept those offers is “knocking us out of funds that could be used to help us pay off the loan.”
“The money that we could be making now could go towards paying off our loan, which I am sure the interest rate has gone up on us. For a church, that is tough.”
Surry County has offered Golding a path to recourse, but it does not help the fact that the church and its congregation need a home. “We offered the church to pull out (of the deal) only because there has been such a long delay,” Woltz said.
The matter has been so convoluted, he said “because the school board’s interest was not known by either party until my office did a title exam to benefit the church after the upset bid process.”
In April 2022, the opening offer of $150,000 for the school was later rescinded by the bidding party shortly after it was made. They were uncertain that the costs of remodeling and remediation would be worth the investment.
That June an offer was presented to the board from John and Beverly Shelton in the amount of $102,000 that was accepted to open upset bidding. Upset bidding allows a period of ten days for another party to make a greater offer than the one on the table.
The county is not required to accept the initial offer once the upset bidding period has ended, which was the case with Shelton offer. A month later, they returned to the board with the same offer which was again declined. The board said they felt the offer was below reasonable value.
There was no action on the school for over eight months save for Tucker’s repeated efforts to get trophies, a school bell, and the WWII memorial moved to a new home until Golding came along with the winning bid in March.
It has now been morethan 90 days since the sale was approved. The whole affair has left Golding with a lot of questions and a bit of a bad taste in his mouth, but he is undeterred in his quest to get Fresh Start Ministry a fresh start in their new home.
Golding was a student once upon a time at Westfield Elementary and his excitement earlier this year was palpable as he talked about it being a homecoming of sorts.
He said he is staying positive but said of the process that he feels, “It’s all about the money.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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