County upset with UI over school property

The University of Iowa's offer to buy the Iowa City school district's headquarters has angered some Johnson County officials.

They say the UI has known for months that the county has had its eyes on the school district's Central Administration Office, 509 S. Dubuque St., and had promised to keep them in the loop on the university's plans for relocating flood-damaged music facilities in the area.

Instead, county officials learned of the offer through the news media late last week.

“This has gone on for years, and I guess this is just another indication that the university is not interested in helping the county solve what we feel is a community issue,” said Sally Stutsman, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors.

That issue is the county's long-standing desire to build a justice center to relieve its aging and overcrowded jail and courthouse.

The existing facilities are within two blocks of the school district's central office, which the UI has offered to buy for $4.5 million.

The county has wavered on its plans for a couple of years but now appears focused on building a justice center near the courthouse.

That plan involves acquiring a federal parking lot south of the courthouse, and the federal government in turn would want a replacement site for parking nearby. The county identified the school district property as one possibility.

County officials say they told the UI of their plans in a meeting last November. That meeting, which was coordinated by state Sen. Bob Dvorsky, a Democrat from Coralville, was called after the UI announced that it was considering relocating Hancher Auditorium and its School of Music south of Burlington Street.

Hancher now is to be rebuilt elsewhere, but the UI wants to put music facilities on both sides of Clinton Street a couple of blocks north of the school district's headquarters. The UI said its interest in the school property is related the purchases needed for the music buildings. The exact relationship has not been disclosed, but two banks would need to be relocated to accommodate the UI's plans.

Sherriff Lonny Pulkrabek said when he heard the news, he wondered if the UI wanted to acquire the property and do a three-way land swap that would result in the county or federal government getting the school site. But there is no indication that will happen.

“If in fact they are back dooring the county, that is really disappointing,” Pulkrabek said.

No one from the UI who participated in the meeting was immediately available for comment, spokesman Tom Moore said.

Not everyone was critical of the UI.

Dvorsky said the UI is on a short time frame with its School of Music plans and needed to move forward. He also said he didn't believe the county's intentions were clear and the best thing for the county to do now would be to develop a detailed plan for the justice center.

Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said he wasn't bothered by the UI's plans because federal officials said earlier this month that they were not high on the school district property.

Supervisor Rod Sullivan acknowledged losing the school site would not be a big setback for the justice center, but he said it was the lack of openness by the UI that he took issue with and he questioned how trustworthy they are.

County officials also said they would consider expanding the current jail, at 511 Capitol St., instead of building new, but it is surrounded on three sides by UI-owned property that the university will not part with.

Instead, the UI is interested in acquiring the jail site.

The Iowa City school board is to discuss and possibly vote on the UI's proposal at its July 27 meeting. School officials have said they consider it a good offer.

School Board President Patti Fields said that she hates to see hard feelings over the UI's offer but that it's the only one on the table and the board will consider it on its own merits.