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Summer apathy or silent approval?

by MAUREEN DOLAN/mdolan@cdapress.com
| July 29, 2014 9:00 PM

The public was a no-show Monday at a public hearing held by the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees.

It is unclear if the empty chairs at the Midtown Meeting Center were a sign of summer apathy or silent approval of the subject of the hearing: a plan to lease land on the grounds of Lakes Magnet Middle School to the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County.

Either way, no one showed up to oppose the idea.

The only members of the public who attended were Pat Whalen, chairman of the Boys & Girls Club board, and Ryan Davis, the program's director.

"This has been a long and interesting process of trying to find a home for the Boys & Girls Club within the city of Coeur d'Alene," Whalen said. "From our standpoint, we believe the grounds in question are darn near perfect."

Last year, the nonprofit youth organization explored building a club at two other locations in Coeur d'Alene: Person Field and Cherry Hill. Neighbors of Person Field opposed the idea, and the other location was deemed unsuitable because it's in a flood plain.

If the latest plan moves forward, the school district would lease to the club - for $1 per year - about one-third of an acre on the middle school campus at 15th Street and Hastings Avenue. The club would run a capital campaign to finance the construction of the facility on the leased land, and share use of the building with the school district.

"It's anticipated that no district or taxpayer funds would be used to build the facility," said Marc Lyons, the school district's attorney, during the hearing.

The school board hearing on Monday was part of the statutory process required of government agencies seeking judicial confirmation. Through judicial confirmation, the school district's board would ask a judge to declare whether the school district has the statutory authority to enter the proposed lease agreement.

Lyons said the school district has the legal authority to rent or provide use of district property for educational or recreational purposes consistent with the school district's mission.

He said it is seeking judicial confirmation of the proposed lease agreement because Idaho law places some limitations on the uses of public property and on debts and liabilities incurred by government agencies. In this case, Lyons said, a judge's declaration is sought because the district is taking a piece of property and making it available - leasing it - to a third party.

There are protections built into the lease agreement, he said.

"We built in some annual reviews, so the lease will come back every year for the trustees to look at and renew every year, so we think we have the appropriate safeguards in place," Lyons said.

The lease is very similar, Lyons said, to the one now in place between the city of Post Falls and the Boys & Girls Club for a facility the organization built and opened in 2012.

Trustee Tom Hearn asked if the district would maintain ownership of the property and structure if, for some reason, the Boys & Girls Club became unable to continue the program at the Lakes location.

"Tom, that was our understanding," Whalen said.

Board chair Christa Hazel said it appears to her that the proposed agreement provides the school district with more protection than it does the youth club.

Lyons said it's true the lease agreement is a "theoretical risk" to the Boys & Girls Club, one they are assuming so they can provide a needed service.

"It is a symbiotic relationship with the school district that I think the parties expect will continue," Lyons said. "But you're correct, the protections are certainly there for the school district."

The trustees will be asked, when they meet in August, to adopt a resolution authorizing the filing of a petition to obtain judicial review of the validity of the draft ground lease agreement.