Fight continues over historic Station Road schoolhouse in West Chester

Neighbors who oppose the sale of the historic Station Road schoolhouse to a Montessori school want to intervene in the pending 12th District Court of Appeals case.

West Chester Twp. was poised to sell the old school to Todd and Jamie Minniear for $250,000 as part of a settlement in a lawsuit the school owners filed. However, some neighbors who oppose the sale intervened in the lawsuit and convinced Magistrate Justin Lane and Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Muench-McElfresh the lawsuit was moot.

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The township’s zoning board of appeals nixed the sale last summer due to traffic and other concerns, and the Minniears filed an administrative appeal in the common pleas court. In December, Lane nullified the Minniears’ appeal because it was filed under a corporate name by Minniear, and he is not an attorney and couldn’t legally file the appeal.

Tim Mara, who represents intervening neighbors David Lindenschmidt and Gary Bolte, filed a cross appeal with the 12th District Court of Appeals late last week. He also wants the three-judge panel to rule on Lane’s failure to decide if they were allowed to intervene in the case.

“The lack of a ruling could be interpreted as a rejection of intervention,” Mara said. “So by filing this notice of appeal, we’ve preserved our right. We’re just trying to cover the bases, when there’s doubt you file.”

He said they want to make sure they will have a say in the proceedings going forward, but the appeals court is under no obligation to allow them to intervene.

The trustees have called the old schoolhouse a “money pit” that they wanted to unload. They also liked the idea of the building remaining a school. Township spokeswoman Barb Wilson said “hard costs” for maintaining the building were $2,445 last year, but the township spent between $15,000 to $16,000 in staff time for mowing, plowing and other maintenance work.

Trustee Mark Welch said it is a money pit because it is a non-performing asset that has the potential to cost a lot later.

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“It can be a money pit just because its a non-performing asset and there’s continued ongoing maintenance,” he said. “There are things where we could potentially run aground, maybe the foundation shifts or something crazy like that. It is an old building.”

Traffic was one of the big concerns when residents were routinely coming to meetings to oppose the sale, but others like Lindenschmidt want to see the historical society get the building.

Mary Jo Bicknell with the West Chester-Union Historical Society asked the trustees previously to reconsider the sale and preserve what she said is the only two-room schoolhouse left in Butler County.

“This building was bought and renovated with taxpayer money, it was to be for public use and displays of local history,” Bicknell said. “The sale to a private business lets them save investing any of their money to update this facility… Taxpayers should be able to know their money was used wisely.”

Welch said that option hasn’t panned out so far.

“I think they are probably looking for it as a gift and they are going to want the township, just like they’ve done in the past, to do certain maintenance,” Welch said. “They want their get out of jail free card in case they can’t raise the money to maintain it.”

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