Sparta Surpluses Baker School, Three Vacant Lots

Sparta’s Baker School Building and three vacant lots were approved to surplus at Thursday night’s board of aldermen meeting.

City Administrator Brad Hennessee said the surplus creates a blank slate of usage options. Hennessee said the roughly 12,000 square foot building offers multiple uses to the next tenant.

“It does not need to be torn down so we want somebody to use it,” Hennessee said. “That’s first and foremost. Then hopefully somebody can use it that will provide jobs inside the city of Sparta. Third, get it back on the tax rolls.”

Mayor Jeff Young said he sees an opportunity to have a business incubator come into the building. Hennessee said the next step to get the school building ready to sell or lease is having it surveyed before subdividing it with the adjoining property.

“The HVAC unit will have to be added to the building,” Hennessee said. “I feel like the core, the building is a mid-50’s era building, the core is very solid. It has a lot of space, a lot of rooms. It could be divided off or could be used as one big area and could be subdivided between tenants or one business for the entire building. While just brainstorming on site, we came up with several options that someone could do with the building.”

As for the vacant lots, Hennessee said the property at 658 North Edgewood Drive and 219 East Bronson Street are co-owned with White County. The third surplus lot is 210 Wagoner Street.

“I’ve talked to the (White County) Finance Director at the courthouse and he’s agreed that we’ll declare them surplus, they’ll declare them surplus,” Hennessee said. “Then once that’s done, we’ll sit down and decide on the method of disposal, which we think will be through sealed bids.”

Hennessee said the city and county will decide on setting a minimum bid price, then offer the parcels for sale to the public.