County board asked to help facilitate Asa Wood sale

Libby school officials have indentified a federal program for brownfields as a way to make the sale and redevelopment of the former Asa Wood Elementary School more palatable.

Partnering with the Kootenai River Development Council, Superintendent Craig Barringer of Libby Public School District petitioned the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on June 3 for help in securing the federal aid. Were they successful, the EPA would mitigate the presence of asbestos in the building, said Tina Oliphant, executive director of the redevelopment council.

The possible solution to the presence of asbestos in the defunct school emerged as district officials seek to sell the property. A Kalispell-based developer approached the district last year with plans to buy the land and erect an assisted living facility.

School officials, who have largely relegated the facility to storage space, greeted the proposal with open arms. They agreed last year to pick up a portion of the tab for a market study and in recent months approved the necessary resolutions to prepare the land for sale.

But the district is on the hook for cleaning up asbestos for the project to move ahead. On June 1, Barringer announced that the cost of removing the hazardous material outweighed the value of the property by more than $100,000.

Much of it is contained in pipes and flooring, but the building also saw asbestos collect in the exterior walls, a leftover from the vermiculite mining responsible for Libby’s present day Superfund site designation.

Through conversations with personnel at the state Department of Environmental Quality, local officials learned the site could be considered a brownfield. That is, a property where the presence of hazardous materials presents an obstacle for redevelopment.

The EPA estimates more than 450,000 brownfield sites exist across the country. Among others, brownfields include gas stations, automotive repair shops, dry cleaners and residential buildings where asbestos was used in insulation as well as floor, wall and roofing materials.

Because the school sits within the Libby Superfund site, though, securing an assessment and possible future mitigation is more complicated, Oliphant told commissioners. DEQ staff recommended they seek a community-wide organization to spearhead the application process, she said.

“It could be the Kootenai River Development Council, but I’m here to ask it be the county,” Oliphant said. “Because you have a bigger voice and this is about a conflict between a large Superfund site and trying to get brownfield contaminants [removed] in a Superfund site.”

Commissioner Mark Peck (D-1) questioned the need for putting the county on the application and not the school district. Oliphant told him DEQ officials had requested a more “community wide” organization than the district.

“What’s more community wide than a school?” he countered.

Fellow Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) asked whether the board might be asked to represent other properties that might fall into the brownfield designation. Oliphant said there would need to be interest in redevelopment before other properties could undergo consideration for the program.

The same problem facing officials in Lincoln County with regards to Asa Wood is playing out across the state, Oliphant said.

“All of the sudden you realize that all throughout rural communities in Montana you have buildings that will cost more to raze and repurpose than the value of the building,” she said. “You can’t just let them sit empty.”

Bennett deemed the situation at Asa Wood one that local officials would have to deal with in the future.

“Regardless of whether you let it fall down, you’re still going to have to take care of it,” he said.

Barringer reiterated the pitch he has given residents and members of the Libby Public School Board in recent months. American Covenant Senior Housing Foundation, the organization looking at redeveloping the site, wants to spend upwards of $10 million on the project, he said.

Once built, the project is expected to offer between 42 and 47 assisted living units. Barringer has said it likely will bring between 12 and 14 jobs to the community.

Although the building had served as a home for community organizations, including the Libby Food Pantry, it represents a net drain on the school district’s coffers, he said. And the development firm is weighing building a new facility for the food pantry on the site.

“The reality is that building is very visible and we dump a lot of money out the door [into it],” Barringer said. “They’re going to invest money in it and make it a beautiful building.”