Monday, March 12, 2012

Oakwood: from school to assisted-living

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and his entourage stopped by to hang with the KNS editorial board this morning, mostly to talk about a proposal to turn - click right smack here for a Josh Flory story on this – Oakwood Elementary School into an assisted-living facility.

Good stuff. Good stuff. I showed up because it means I can score a free Diet Coke out of the refrigerator in the special meeting room. Naw, not really.

Here's the deal:

Family Pride, which thankfully has experience doing this kind of thing, wants the county to ante up (not to exceed) $712K in folding paper to fix the building and deal with the environmental issues, which includes removing the bird turds. The company would then spend $4.5 million of its own coin on the rest of the rehabilitation.

The plan is build a 58-unit facility and create 35 jobs with a $750,000 payroll. Burchett said the property would yield $77,000 in city and county taxes each year, but there's talk about a PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, that the developer plans to talk about with the Industrial Development Board.

The mayor said the neighborhood is on board with the proposal, which isn't a surprise because it's either this or a soup kitchen/homeless shelter. Kidding. Well, sort of.

6 comments:

Brian Hornback said...

While the Diet Coke poopoo control the beverages in the Big Metal Shed on the Hill. The Shock And Awe compound is stocked with Diet Coke / Coke Zero and a J.R. Ewing type mixing station.

Mike Donila said...

Some days we even have bottled water.

Brian Paone said...

Great idea, but why the well did Tim feel the need to pitch it to the Sheditorial staff? It's not like anyone listens to Barker anymore anyway.

Mike Donila said...

He just said he wanted the board's support. It wasn't a long meeting.

Brian Paone said...

Hell, if I were Tim I'd be asking for their opposition. Having the Shed support one's views isn't quite the boon it may have been in the past...

Mike Donila said...

yeah, it can be the kiss of death sometimes