SWCC in donation talks

The Southwestern Community College Board of Trustees began talks April 11 of donating a parcel of land to Greater Regional Health for use as a parking lot for their new daycare, a collaboration with I Think I Can childcare center.

Wayne Pantini, SWCC vice president of economic development, shared how SWCC first obtained this land.

“They have approached us about taking a look at the adjoining property that’s to the south that was gifted to us back in 2013 as a result of the tornado that went through and took out [apartments] built on that property,” Pantini said. “It was demolished as a result of the tornado and they decided not to rebuild, so they gifted it to the college at that time.”

Pantini explained why Greater Regional reached out regarding this land.

“This being adjacent to the childcare center, they asked if we would consider making a contribution to the childcare center by donating that piece of land for additional parking for the clients that they’ll have, the parents that are dropping off the students,” Pantini said. “But also extra staff parking because they’ve had quite a big response as a result of the new childcare services, there’s an interest in getting additional parking.”

Pantini said the college had been in contact with Ahlers and Cooney, a law firm that specializes in educational institutes, regarding guidance on the gifting of the land and what they were allowed to do.

“They provided us some guidance on land and making sure that when it was given to the college, whether or not there were any restrictions in that regard,” Pantini said. “We went back through the paperwork and there were no restrictions for us on that, so that’s some good news, we don’t have to worry about going back and taking a look at that to meet those restrictions. There are no restrictions on the piece of ground. They did provide us some guidance just to make sure there are some rules, obviously, with the state code allowing us to give property from one public entity to another. We did verify that since the hospital is a tax entity, it is considered public, so there’s no issues there.”

The school also looked into putting restrictions on their gift.

“They also provided guidance that they would be able to put some restrictions in there to make sure, from our standpoint, that the childcare center is well-established, that it’s good and operational,” Pantini said. “That way for some reason, if after we gifted it, finding a time period in there that would work for us where, if for some reason it did not happen, then we could have the ability to get that ground back. If also for some reason down the road, if for some reason the plans change for that piece of property, I can’t imagine, but if for some reason the use of that piece of that piece of property was different than intended for childcare, then we could put that restriction in there as well to make sure it has a restriction so they don’t sell it to a fast food joint or something like that.”

SWCC Board of Trustees President Dr. Tony Cass liked the idea of donating the land.

“It’ll be a nice facility to have, greatly needed in the community for increased services for childcare,” Cass said.

Board member Jerry Smith said he would abstain from the vote because of past involvement with the property.

“I was involved in the purchasing and ownership of that property, going back to the 1980s, and we owned it for like 33 years,” Smith said. “Then actually, it was a 16-unit apartment complex, pretty good size. As it blew away, I was working with FHA and they gave us a couple of options. The one option was to deed it over to a public entity, so it made a lot of sense. I’m going to abstain from the vote just because I was caught up in the ownership for so long. That said, I am all for the project.”

A public hearing regarding the donation has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on May 9 in the board room of the Administration Center at SWCC.