JEROMESVILLE — School property will be changing hands in Jeromesville and Hayesville.
The Hillsdale Local Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a pair of resolutions Tuesday to sell the properties of its old school buildings.
Hillsdale’s middle school building used to sit on a property in Jeromesville, while the elementary school was on a property in Hayesville.
At the board’s July meeting, it heard comments from representatives of Vermillion Township and Jeromesville. They expressed interest in the Hayesville and Jeromesville properties, respectively.
Supt. Catherine Trevathan said the board hoped to have something on its August agenda dealing with the properties’ sale. The resolutions appeared on the agenda for September’s regular board meeting.
(Below is a copy of Hillsdale’s Sept. 17 board agenda. The resolutions to sell the properties are on pages 5-9.)
Hayesville property
The resolution dealing with the old elementary school property in Hayesville approved the sale of the property to the Board of Trustees of Vermillion Township.
That property, according to the resolution, sits on 11.193 acres. Trevathan said the sale would be for $20,472.25, which reflects the district’s costs to survey the land and more.
Eric Deter, one of the Vermillion Township trustees, said the trustees took an interest in the property when the district chose tore down the old school. The township hopes to use the property for two purposes.
The first: It plans to keep the property’s baseball field intact and use it for Hayesville’s youth league. He said the fields currently used for the youth league get overloaded. Having more space will ensure that doesn’t happen.
The property will also allow the township to expand its cemetery. Deter said the cemetery is running out of plots and the old school property will be a place to start a new cemetery.
“This way it’s a community thing,” Deter said. “The community is paying for it, so the community gets to use it.”
Deter said the board of trustees has yet to approve any resolution or purchase of the property on its end. He won’t take part in that process, however, because his wife is Hillsdale Local Schools’ treasurer.
Still, the township will be happy to hopefully obtain the property. Trevathan said part of the conditions of the property sale include a stipulation that the property will be used for government purposes for 50 years.
Jeromesville property
The second resolution approved by the board concerned the sale of the district’s 8-acre property to the Jeromesville Community Fire District.
Trevathan said that sale is for $14,600. The sale, like with the Hayesville property, comes with the condition that the property will be used for government purposes for 50 years.
At the board’s July meeting, fire chief Todd Elliott and Jeromesville mayor Randy Spade both said they hoped the space would offer the fire department a chance for growth.
Elliott said at the July board meeting he hoped the space would allow them to build a fire station in Jeromesville.
The Jeromesville Fire Department told Ashland Source on Sept. 18 it hasn’t received a contract on any purchase yet. The fire department added it won’t move forward with the purchase until it has a contract.
Spade said Sept. 18 the fire district board operates separately from the village of Jeromesville. He reported conversations with Elliott about the potential use for the property, but didn’t have details about a long-term plan.
