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Monday, January 10, 2011

County Taxpayers Invested $1,095,387 in the Peary High School building...

then gave the building away for free.

In a Maryland State Department of Education document (see below) obtained by the Parents' Coalition the public learns that Montgomery County invested $1,095,387 in the Peary High School building between the time the property was transfered to the County and the sale to the private entity.

The $1,095,387 was spent by County taxpayers to remove the asbestos in the building at a cost of $795,387 and to put a new roof on the building for $300,000.

Both of these improvements were apparently made when Peary High School was no longer in use as a public school and was under the control of the County government. (Neither of these expenditures appear to have been mentioned by the County Executive or the County Council during the recent discussions over the sale of the Peary High School site to a private entity.)

Yet, when Montgomery County entered into a lease/option to buy agreement with the private entity in 1996 the deal was premised on the assumption that the building had NO VALUE. The only appraisals that were used to sell the Peary High School site were appraisals of the land ONLY. No value was given to the existing school building. When the sale was finalized last month, the county received $0 for the Peary High School building. The sale terms only compensated the County for the transfer of the land.

Who removes the asbestos and puts a new roof on a building that has no value and should be demolished?

Montgomery County taxpayers, here's the question: If you put a new roof on a structure and removed all the asbestos would you then declare the structure to have NO VALUE and give it away for free? That's what your County government just did according to the information from the Maryland Public School Construction Program shown below.

PHSExpendituresProceeds

5 comments:

  1. Janis, a few comments (since you asked):

    1. It is not entirely clear that these monies were actually spent, but if they were it was in the mid-80s, long before any discussions with the Berman Academy over the site.

    2. The asbestos remediation would have been required even if the County had demolished the building. To the extent it was done, it was not completed. The school still has asbestos in the basement, which prevents its use absent expensive remediation (for which we don't currently have, but will one day have to raise, the funds). If remediation in the upper levels was done, it was probably because the BoE continued to use the building as an administrative building for a few years in the 80s after Peary closed. Regardless, as noted, the asbestos would need to be removed regardless of what was done with the building.

    2. As for the roof, I have no idea what was done, if anything, in the 80s, but I can attest that by 1996, when the Berman Academy entered the lease/purchase agreement, the roof had fallen into almost complete disrepair. As the slides and testimony presented at the Council hearing illustrated, there was standing water in parts of the building. We had to replace almost the entire roof as part of the renovation.

    So, yes, it is accurate to say, as the parties determined, that the building had zero value until the Berman Academy renovated it. (In fact, its "value" was negative, as had the Academy not taken responsibility for the building, the County would have had to pay to complete the asbestos remediation and demolish it - at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.)

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  2. Receipts please. Make them public. Your information does not match with what Montgomery County has represented to the State of Maryland.

    No guesses, facts. Montgomery County has told the State these monies were expended on the Peary High School building. Make the invoices for the work public with dates.

    Thanks.

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  3. Note-not talking about Board of Education expenditures. Montgomery County has represented these funds were expended.

    Get the receipts. We will be happy to post them.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Janis, I don't have them, nor do I think it is my responsibility to get them - I don't have anything to prove - but I presume you could ask for them yourself if you are interested, and I certainly have no objection to that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Then please don't say it isn't clear these monies were spent. It is crystal clear to the State of Maryland that these funds were spent on Peary High School when the building was owned by the County, not when it was owned by the Board of Education.

    Are you trying to say that the State of Maryland was misled by Montgomery County?

    ReplyDelete

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