Golden Hills School Division put Central School up for bids last week, making the historic building available to the public market.
Elim Pentecostal Church is one player in town that will place a bid on the building, which closed in 2003 but reopened to house Drumheller Composite High School in mid-2008.
“We’re as interested as we were before. Our option with St. Anthony’s is still available, but we’re crunching numbers to see where we will be down the road,” said pastor Daniel Dannhauer. “I’m pretty sure we’ll put a tender in, but I’m not sure what the bid will look like and I can’t speak on the board’s behalf.
“We have a number of hurdles to go through before submitting the bid,” he said, explaining they must have a board meeting to decide to place a bid before the Thursday, May 19 deadline.
Hartman said although an older school, Central School is in good shape.
“We’ve had good use of it, for the past two and a half years there were no problems with space utilization or meeting the needs of our students,” he said.
There is no reserve bid on the tender.
“We’re going to let the market determine what it is worth. We put a clause on the tender that reserves the board the right to reject any or all tenders,” said Hartman, adding there has been an appraisal done on the building, but GHSD was not prepared to disclose the figure.
He also said the intended purpose of the bidder will not affect their approval of a bid.
After the Ministry of Education decided they had no need for the building, it was moved on February 22 by trustee Harries that the board of trustees declared Central School surplus to its needs, and proceeded with the sale of the school through the tendering process.
If the bid is unsuccessful, if necessary, the board will obtain ministerial approval to list the property with a real estate agent.
