The space-sharing agreement between Creston School District and Green Hills Area Education Agency is viewed as a win-win situation.
This was the sentiment from Creston School Board Monday evening.
“We think it’s kind of a no-brainer,” said Creston Superintendent Tim Hood.
Discussions
School-board members and school and AEA officials have discussed via conference calls the possibility of AEA personnel using the south portion of the Burton R. Jones Complex located at 801 N. Elm St.
The former AEA site was destroyed in an April 14 tornado. Currently, Green Hills AEA has a one-year lease for a building located at 230 N. Pine St.
Hood said officials have been agreeing, in principal, for the AEA to build parking lots at the complex and do remodeling of its areas to be used.
Negotiations will be done annually for the AEA’s share of utilities, maintenance, custodial services and general upkeep.
This also means the school district will then have use of the former Green Hills AEA site, which is located at 1405 N. Lincoln St.
The school district owns the land adjacent to the east side of the former AEA site.
Bus barn
The most prominent idea is to put the bus barn at the former Green Hills AEA site. The original bus barn was also destroyed in the April 14 tornado.
“As far as the bus barn goes, we need to figure that out,” Hood said.
According to Hood, a meeting was scheduled for today with Southern Iowa Trolley (SIT) to discuss its potential involvement with the potential bus-barn site.
SIT is interested in being a part of the bus barn and having access to the shop areas.
One original design for the bus-barn building at the former AEA site is having the building run north and south. The doors for the cars and lighter vehicles would be on the west side. Doors for the buses would be on the east side.
However, all of the design plans could be subject to change.
Time is of the essence, especially with winter approaching in a few months.
“We’re not sure where everything is going to go, but we’ll see,” Hood said.