1995

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Time, commUnication prevent conflict Methodists, School Board, ECCC hammer out solution to problem

It ~taned out with all the earmarks of a conflict. .. one that would end in hard feeli ngs, and one that would leave wounds that time would soothe, but not necessarily heal. It ended differently. Given a little time, a will– ingnc~s to solve the problem a nd a little communica– tion, all three parties wound up with what they wanted, or more. It wa::. a happy ending for the Newton County School Board, the Decatur United Methodist Church and l:.a~t Central Community College. All three groups that are stellar contributors to their community and really have no business being at odds. They are all in the same boat, trying to make ~ Back in January, the Newton County School District realit.es that it has surplus propeny on its hand~ nov, that the new high school is built. ~ The congregation of the Methodist Church is landlocked at the rear of their property and are look– ing to have the means to expand. ~ The two groups meet and come to a decision. The ~chool board says it will get the property ap– prai~cd and ~ell them the Vocational building. ~ The appraisal gets done. Campus value about their community a better place. On a time hne it goes like this:

$200,000. The Vocational building is about $40,000 of the total. ~ East Central Community College President Dr Eddie Smith, who is grappling with a growing enroll ment year by year (a problem he is glad to have) of fers to buy the whole campus for the appraised valuation of $200,000. Dr. Smith says that the school will need all of the property in order to use any of it. ~ Representatives of the church meet with the school boa rd Monday night. " We met and acted in good faith," said Charles Boggan, "we thought we had an agreement and now we lind that that is no longer the case. This is a window of opportunity for us to expand our church and its services to the com munity that won't happen again. We've done just what you asked us to, when you asked us to." ~ The school board members were sympathetic, but had the School District to consider. "You know wt· need money to run this school system. If we sell ,, piece for $40,000 and can't seU the rest, we haven 1 done our job which is to get what we can for thcs·c students." "We have to look after the studenrs and their 111 terests and we owe it to them and the taxpa}'l'rS 10 get what we can for this property," 'laid hoa1tl member Mike Hafri~. '

~ Boggan on SC\'

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the original $200,000. ~ Everybody wins.