(Lake Park)– Lake Park Mayor Matt Carstensen was among those in attendance at Monday’s Harris-Lake Park School Board meeting. He addressed the board regarding the current elementary building, saying the city doesn’t want to see it just sit there and become an eyesore…
“Once they’re done using the school we want it to have a positive effect. Now whether that be getting someone to develop the building into something else or make a commitment to do that or whether that is just removal of the building altogether, that’s probably what we’re more interested in than anything. We don’t want to see an abandoned building sitting with no type of a development agreement that forces that forward.”
Carstensen added it’s likely the city won’t have any interest in the building…
“The biggest problem that we see is that the reason that the school district chose not to update it was because of the cost. We’re in the same boat. If anything happens that, you know, we would choose to move forward, we would have to have some of the same procedures done: new roofing, a new HVAC and those types of things. So it seems like a daunting task and I’m not sure the city wants to undertake.”
Carstensen says the overwhelming support the bond issue received from voters speaks volumes for the Lake Park community. He says it should help foster future growth in the community, adding the city council has commissioned a housing study that is now underway. We’ll have more on that in upcoming newscasts.
