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School district offer on barn
From an e-mail sent by the West Des Moines school district on Wednesday:The West Des Moines school district has received input from community members about the plans for the barn at Valley High School. To help meet the educational needs of our students by providing usable outdoor space for physical education and athletic activities and address interest in the barn, the following options and related actions are proposed.
Remain
The West Des Moines Community Schools will take the following steps in order for the Valley High School barn to remain at its current location:
• Request the West Des Moines City Council to reduce storm water retention and parking requirements on the southeast corner of the site with approval by March 1, 2011.
This would allow restoration of the southeast corner of the site, which is currently used for storm water retention, to its pre-2001 status as usable space (approximately one acre).
• Provide resources for the restoration of the southeast corner for use by students.
• Commit funds not to exceed the amount currently identified in the project budget for water retention and parking to be used for restoration of the southeast corner.
• This will provide usable space on the site and allow the barn to remain in its current location.
• Enter into a 28E agreement by March 1, 2011, with an appropriate local organization for maintenance, repair or renovation of the barn.
• The district will provide $28,000 to help with the cost of maintaining or renovating the barn.
Relocate
The West Des Moines Community Schools will take the following steps in order for the Valley High School barn to be moved to a new location:
• Provide time up to May 1, 2011, to allow more time for community fundraising efforts.
• This will require a contract acceptable to the district with a relocation company by May 1, 2011, to have the relocation of the barn completed by June 1, 2011.
• Offer district land near the Bennett School House on which the barn may be placed.
• The district will remain owner of the building, but will not assume responsibility for maintenance, repair or renovation of the building.
• This will require a 28E agreement with an appropriate local organization by May 1, 2011.
• Provide up to $28,000 for the removal of the barn’s foundation, filling and regrading of the current site, barn relocation costs and/or construction of a foundation (if placed on district property), subject to the district’s ability to pay for such costs under Iowa law.
Remove
The West Des Moines Community Schools will raze the barn on or after May 2, 2011, to meet the educational needs of our students by providing usable outdoor space for physical education and athletic activities should the requirements for the options listed above not be met.
The West Des Moines school district has offered a site to relocate the Maplenol Dairy barn that now sits on the Valley High School campus, and will put some money toward the cost of maintaining or renovating the structure, officials said on Wednesday.
The West Des Moines school district earlier this month confirmed its intent to raze the clay-tile-block barn to make room for additional green space on the Valley campus.
District officials have said they’ve tried for several months to sell or give the barn to someone who would be willing to move it, but no one has shown interest.
DeCarlo Demolition of Des Moines was granted a city permit Jan. 3 to raze the barn.
Elaine Watkins-Miller, director of school and community relations for the district, said in an e-mail Wednesday that the barn will be razed on or after May 2 — a delay from the March 1 date announced earlier — if officials can’t reach a viable solution to retain or relocate it.
In the e-mail, the district outlined a three-step plan, including an offer to allocate $28,000 — the same amount DeCarlo bid to raze the barn — toward maintaining or renovating the building.
The district also said it would offer land near the Bennett Schoolhouse on which the barn could be placed, but that it would not be responsible for ongoing costs to maintain, renovate or repair the structure. The old one-room school sits southeast of Jordan Creek Elementary School on Fuller Road.
Moving the barn from the Valley High School campus would be better than razing it, but the best choice would be leaving it right where it is, proponents of saving the barn said at a Tuesday meeting.
“Who would want to go see the Maplenol Barn from Valley High School in Warren County, Iowa?” said Reike Plecas, one of the meeting organizers. “Moving it wouldn’t be true to the heritage of West Des Moines, and there’s no need when it could have so many uses right where it is.”
The West Des Moines school district earlier this month confirmed its intent to raze the clay-tile-block barn to make room for additional green space on the Valley campus.
District officials have said they’ve tried for several months to sell or give the barn to someone who would be willing to move it, but no one has shown interest.
DeCarlo Demolition of Des Moines was granted a city permit Jan. 3 to raze the barn.
Elaine Watkins-Miller, director of school and community relations for the district, said in an e-mail Wednesday that the barn will be razed on or after May 2 — a delay from the March 1 date announced earlier — if officials can’t reach a viable solution to retain or relocate it.
In the e-mail, the district outlined a three-step plan, including an offer to allocate $28,000 — the same amount DeCarlo bid to raze the barn — toward maintaining or renovating the building.
The district also said it would offer land near the Bennett Schoolhouse on which the barn could be placed, but that it would not be responsible for ongoing costs to maintain, renovate or repair the structure. The old one-room school sits southeast of Jordan Creek Elementary School on Fuller Road.
Moving the barn from the Valley High School campus would be better than razing it, but the best choice would be leaving it right where it is, proponents of saving the barn said at a Tuesday meeting.
“Who would want to go see the Maplenol Barn from Valley High School in Warren County, Iowa?” said Reike Plecas, one of the meeting organizers. “Moving it wouldn’t be true to the heritage of West Des Moines, and there’s no need when it could have so many uses right where it is.”
Plecas and other members of the Save the Maplenol Dairy Barn at Valley High School Facebook group hosted about 50 people at Faith Tabernacle Church in Valley Junction to gain support for retaining the 79-year-old structure.
Most people who addressed the group Tuesday night spoke passionately in favor of saving the barn, which was built in 1932 by the Good family, one of West Des Moines’ founding families. Most also advocated keeping the barn in its current location on the western edge of the Valley campus, bordering 39th Street.
“As lovers of Iowa and lovers of agricultural history, we need to encourage the school district to clean up the barn and use it somehow,” West Des Moines resident Marcy Campbell said. “West Des Moines used to look a whole lot like that barn. We need to hang on to our history and hang on to this barn.”
Rochelle Long of West Des Moines, who graduated from Valley, said the barn is too significant as a landmark to be moved.
“Moving it would be like relocating Fifth Street in Valley Junction to Jordan Creek Mall,” Long said. “West Des Moines has a history, and we need to preserve that history as long as we can.”
But Bob Craven, a real estate agent from West Des Moines, said the community and district would be better served by preserving the barn in another location.
“We don’t want to be doing this in another 20 years. The school is landlocked, so are we really looking at a solution that will work in perpetuity?” Craven said. “Moving it would save it while guaranteeing that we won’t find ourselves back here again.”
Plecas, who also lives in West Des Moines and graduated from Valley, has been advocating for the district to turn the barn into a space that would benefit the high school and West Des Moines as a whole, such as a community center or a small theater.
“It’s important to a lot of people that we keep the barn there with its primary focus being education,” he said. “The possibilities are endless. We have classes at Valley that could help rehabilitate the barn and use it for the benefit of other students. It truly is a diamond in the rough.”
Plecas also read a letter of support sent to him by Robert Brooks of West Des Moines, Valley’s principal from 1978 to 2000.
“My first year in West Des Moines I … took part in the demolition of the old high school, and I still have a cornerstone of it,” Brooks said in his letter. “Changes (such as that one) were made for the benefit of the students and, ultimately, all have led to increased student achievement.
“I do not sense that the movement to demolish the barn has anything to do with this kind of improvement. Therefore, I absolutely support the community effort to do everything possible to save the barn.”
Amy Miller of West Des Moines, who has a farming background, said she has no doubt the barn could be retained in its current location and could easily be rehabilitated for a variety of uses.
“It’s in fantastic condition, and farming is too huge a part of our culture for us to consider doing away with a building that has so much potential,” Miller said.
The school district’s chief financial officer, Kurt Subra, told the forum Tuesday night that although he appreciates the passion of those who want to save the barn, the district is reluctant to allocate money to a cause that does not directly to benefit students.
Some members of the audience responded that any such money would be derived from the local-option sales tax, not from district coffers, and that the public should be given input into how the sales-tax money is allocated. Subra said the public is always given the opportunity for such input at board meetings.
Plecas said the Save the Barn group has received promises of about $40,000 in pledges from people who support keeping the barn in its current location. The group’s goal is to raise at least $100,000, he said.
Donations are being accepted by the West Des Moines Historical Society, whose members have agreed to maintain the barn if it’s moved or left at Valley.
As of Tuesday night, more than 2,000 people had joined the “Save the Maplenol Dairy Barn at Valley High School” group on Facebook 
