PORT TOWNSEND — The Mountain View Elementary School campus is now The Mountain View Commons.
By vote of 4-0, with Rita Bebee absent, the Port Townsend School Board approved leasing the Mountain View campus to the City of Port Townsend on Monday night, giving the police station a new home and reducing the school district’s operating costs for the coming school year.
Port Townsend City Council approved the lease Aug. 3 with the stipulation that the city would only pay a maximum of $25,000 in repairs if there is a major systems failure at the location.
Superintendent Tom Opstad said the district should be comfortable with the additional language.
“This lease, I believe, is a final version, and it should be well received by both parties,” Opstad said.
“It’s been approved by both [the district and city] insurance companies as well as both lawyers.”
With the approval, the lease will begin Sept. 1.
Under terms of the lease, the city will pay $66,000 annually for use of the Mountain View campus for five years, with the city paying all utility charges, taxes and assessments during that time.
The school district reserves the right to use some parts of the campus for classrooms or other uses, such as storage, under the lease.
Beginning Aug. 31, 2014, the lease may continue on a year-to-year basis, unless either the district or the city terminates it. Two years’ notice would be necessary for termination.
Under the agreement, the city also maintains and operates the swimming pool, the only public pool in Port Townsend.
City Manager David Timmons coined the title “The Mountain View Commons” at the City Council’s Aug. 3 meeting as an umbrella term for the services that may potentially be offered at the location.
In addition to the Port Townsend Police Station, Timmons hopes other groups will join them at the site, including the Port Townsend Farmer’s Market, OlyCAP, the state Department of Licensing, the Department of Corrections parole program, the YMCA, the Port Townsend Food Bank, the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce and the local Rotary clubs.
The school district made the decision to close the campus earlier this year to shave operating costs.
With reduced enrollment in the district, the need was reduced for Mountain View — which served as a fourth- and fifth-grade school.
The district approved the restructuring of grades, moving the fourth and fifth grades to Blue Heron Middle School for the upcoming school year.
Modular buildings have been installed at the Blue Heron campus to facilitate the extra grades.
The decision to lease the campus was made after a series of public meetings where community members asked the district to keep the campus in possession of the public.
With the ability to terminate the lease early, the district has the opportunity to return Mountain View to a school if enrollment numbers change in the future.
Board member Anne Burkart said she was happy with the agreement, as the alternative would have been to mothball the facility.
“We did an awful lot of deliberation as far as the lease is concerned,” Burkart said.
“The decision we came up with is the best we could have, considering the situation.
“There truly weren’t a lot of alternatives.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
