School Owner To Give Deed To TownThe town of Silver Lake will be given the deed to the old elementary school per a new agreement between the owner and the town.
Silver Lake Town Councilman Chad Miner said Thursday that the property owner of the school, Mike Baur, agreed early this week to give the town the deed for $1 in exchange for the town waiving his almost $100,000 in ordinance fines and fees he’s accrued.
The school, at 202 E. Sycamore St., Silver Lake, was ordered to be demolished by the town council at a meeting on March 11. Miner and fellow council members Hugh Murfin and Nichole Taylor all agreed that unless Baur agrees to hand over the deed with no strings attached, they aren’t interested in doing anything other than knocking the building down. The building, they say, is in such disrepair it has become a liability to the town.
The town originally ordered the building be demolished in May 2018 after Baur’s promises to fix it up never happened. Baur appealed that demolition order in the courts, and lost.
Community members who want to save the school formed the Silver Lake Center Foundation in December and came to the March council meeting asking the council to try to get the deed and then allow the foundation to attempt to find grant money.
Bruce Munson, attorney for Baur, who does business as Silver Lake Partners LLC, said Thursday when asked why his client had a sudden change of heart, “You can only fight something so long. Once it has been procedurally handled, there was an appeal, it wasn’t successful, there was a petition to the (Indiana) Supreme Court, the Supreme Court declined transfer, the only option beyond that point is a petition to the United States Supreme Court. Now that’s a heck of a project and it’s above the paygrade of many real estate investors, so it wasn’t a very viable option in my opinion,” he said. “So, the town prevailed in its effort to enforce a demolition order. That’s a tremendously wonderful building. It’d be wonderful if they rethink their position, get my client out of the picture and find another use of that treasure, but that’s not up to me.”
Munson said he expected the property to be deeded over to the town within the next day or two and he expects his client will be cooperative in handing over keys.
Miner said the town has agreed to give Baur until the end of April to retrieve any property he wants from the building.
Because of the coronavirus restrictions, the April Silver Lake Town Council meeting was cancelled. But Miner expects the topic of the school will be addressed at the council’s May meeting.
“I would anticipate that hopefully we can reconvene at our May meeting and then at that point I think we would have to talk about what the process going forward looks like,” he said. “I would like to see what’s out there as far as grant opportunities and you know, to see what we can do as far as getting a community building and getting some help in the costs of dealing with what’s there now.”
