Montgomery Co. Commission Agrees To Purchase Mall Property From Board of Education, If Unable to Pay Property
More developments to a major project for Montgomery Public Schools. The city of Montgomery and the county commission have agreed to purchase part of the Montgomery Mall to house two of the county’s schools — a back up plan incase the board is unable to pay for the property. The property has a $750,000 price tag — a bill the board of education plans to pay. Now, the city and county Commission says they’re on standby to pick up that tab if something goes wrong just to make sure the two schools will be on that property. 18 acres of the Montgomery Mall will soon be used to educate hundreds of Montgomery County students. “The vision is the old Parisian building that’s where we are going to have the LAMP high school with all the athletic fields around there and then the JC Penny building will house the M-Tech program,” Said MPS School board member, Melissa Snowden. The decision was made after a 4 to 1 vote by the county commission to purchase the property from the board of education — that is if the financing documents aren’t completed by June 30th of next year. The city is contributing 60 percent of that money. The county is contributing 40 percent. The total amount for the whole project will cost about $33 million. Commissioner Ronda Walker believes improvements need to be made at Montgomery Public Schools, but disagreed with the vote. “I think the disagreement here is not that things need to be done, but it’s a difference in strategy. How we’re going to get to the results we want and throwing money at Montgomery Mall, which will put two schools in there and then we are going to have an empty mall around these schools… I don’t think that’s the best course of action,” Said Walker. But it’s a course of action the board plans to still make with the overall approval from the county commission in hope of having students attend school inside the mall starting Fall of 2016. “The city and the county commission will put about $27 million towards the projects and then we will put $6 million,” Said Snowden. Walker says if for some reason the $33 million dollars for the project doesn’t come through, the county and the city will pay the board back the $750,000 dollars The $33 million dollars not only includes the mall project, but also an additional wing at Park Crossing High School.
