North Clay Board Discusses Lease of Ground for Park

The question of leasing school district property to establish a new park in Louisville was discussed at this week's North Clay school board meeting.

The matter has been a topic for several months, and there have been comments at recent meetings by individuals opposed to the idea. At this week's meeting, Park Board members Jason Griffy and Anthony Dawkins spoke regarding a possible lease, as well as budgeting for expenses for the new park. There was no lease drawn and discussion began by taking a straw poll of school board members on whether to proceed with drafting a lease.

Tony Smith spoke in favor of not having a 99-year lease, and of only leasing a portion of the 20 acres proposed for the park. Jenny McKinney said she was in favor of the 99-year lease, including plans and a timeline,, but cautioned to include easements and access. Ryan Ballard, Chris Bible and David Simmons agreed that the lease be only for a portion of the entire acreage. Kim Adair said she preferred proceeding with the lease, but wanted to continue hearing from the community and that she preferred only a portion of the acreage be leased. Board President Cecil Cochran said he preferred leasing the entire acreage, but would go along with the majority.

No action on the issue was taken.

The Board did, though vote 7-0 to continue with their current agreement to use park district facilities for school district activities at the rate of $1,500 for the upcoming school year.

Also this week, North Clay board members agreed to not retain an architect for a culvert project on district grounds since some on the Board have sufficient expertise to oversee the work and then agreed to check with Ray's Backhoe Service for a price on the work; decided to have Ballard and Bible serve on a committee along with Superintendent Monty Aldrich to develop a recommendation on whether the district should allow advertising on campus; tabled the issue of forming a Drama Club until the March meeting; and heard from North Clay Education Association President Rich Grubaugh about a monthly series of presentations on district programs and teachers, which started with information from Ag teacher Terry Branch on his program, including FFA.

Also, the Board contracted with South Central FS for diesel fuel; hired Brian Harrington as high school assistant baseball coach; agreed to advertise for mowing bids; and set end-of-year dates with high school graduation on Sunday, May 15; Baccalaureate at 2pm and Commencement at 3pm, and 8th grade promotion on Tuesday, May 17 at 6:30pm, both in the high school gym.