OP/ED: Blueberry School Sale a Poor Deal for SD 20
By Contributor
I am Mark Wilson – School Trustee for the Trail area and after reading the Article on the Sale of Blueberry School dated October 30/15 in your paper, I would like to clarify a few items. These are my opinions backed by facts.
1. The vote to sell this school for $1 was passed by the slimmest majority on October 27/15, not by a strong majority as mentioned by Trustee Ganzert.
2. Statement that assessed values by Ganzert that they don’t reflect market value has some merit bu teach one of us as property owners know that they area good indicator of value.
3. Assessed value of Blueberry School for 2015 is $1,378,000.00.
4. Beaver Valley School was used as an example – too bad Ganzert forgot to mention that the School Districtsoldthisbuilding2007fortheamountof$700,00.00-andtodaytheassessed value is $489,000.00 -because of the terrible condition it is in.
5. Thestatement made by Trustee Kinakin that this sale should be broadcast across the province shows his total lack of financial reality for the whole district. We would not be received favorably by other districts that are in our deficitposition
This whole deal of selling a B.C. assessed property of $1,378,000.00 for $1 is a tainted political vote that reflects badly on our whole district. We could have taken any proceeds from this sale and we could have put them into our education system that issupposed to treat all areas of the district equally.
In the year of a deficit we needed every penny to keep our system operating -yet with this deficit we gave away a prime asset for $1–A very bad deal for SD20.
Yours truly,
Mark Wilson SD 20
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