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Nov. 10, 2011
The Bloomington Elementary School building is available for purchase. The Garrett County commissioners said last week they would consider all “reasonable” offers for the 21,123-square-foot structure, which sits on 1.25 acres at the foot of Backbone Mountain.
The Garrett County Board of Education permanently closed the facility following the 2010-2011 school year because of funding issues. About 34 prekindergarten through fifth grade students attended the school last year. Bloomington area children in those grades now attend Yough Glades Elementary School.
The Garrett County Department of Purchasing recently invited the public to submit bids for the Bloomington school. Purchasing agent Brian Bowers told the county commissioners last Tuesday that the bid request fulfilled local guidelines about public notification, and the commissioners may now sell the property outright.
“There is a provision with-in the county code – that we’ve made our public notice obligation, notifying the public of the sale – if we do have an interested party after the fact, the board has the ability to negotiate with them privately,” Bowers told the commissioners.
He said three parties, including the Bloomington Volunteer Fire Department, had expressed some interest in the property during the bidding process.
The BVFD did not submit a bid, Bowers said, because of uncertainty with asbestos abatement, demolition costs, and other things of that nature.
“I believe their intended use was to tear down the school and use that [site]as a community type park/property, until they decided to build a fire station in the future,” Bowers said about the fire department.
He added that BVFD officials indicated they may still be interested in the property if a grant or some other type of financial assistance becomes available for the project.
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