For the week of December 24 - 30, 2002

Carey endorses plans 
for new high school

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Carey City Council members last week approved a series of land-use applications designed to permit Blaine County School District to build a new high school in central Carey.

In a meeting Dec. 17, the panel approved four separate applications—two filed by the school district and two filed by landowner Barbara Berg—that will establish the appropriate lot lines for the school district to advance its plan to construct a new 43,000-square-foot high school adjacent to the existing Carey School campus at 20 Panther Lane.

Linda Patterson, Carey planning and zoning administrator, said a conditional use permit for the district to construct the new school south of the existing campus has been issued by the Carey Planning and Zoning Commission.

She noted that the proposed facility will be located next to the existing high-school gymnasium, and will include a corridor for students and staff to travel from the old campus to the new site.

Middle school and elementary school students will remain on the old campus, she noted.

The district’s project representative, planning consultant John Gaeddert, could not be reached for comment.

To provide a site for the new school and an adjacent parking lot, Blaine County School District has negotiated the purchase of several lots adjacent to Carey School from two separate landowners.

One application approved by council members allowed the school to combine three separate lots into one lot to accommodate the project.

Patterson said council members showed general support for the project. "They felt it was of benefit to the community," she said.

However, one land-use application approved by council members last week—which proposed to give the school district a waiver to forego the formal subdivision process of an unplatted parcel of land it wanted to include in the project—had received only limited support from P&Z members. The waiver was requested by the school district to speed up the project.

P&Z commissioners by a 3-2 vote eventually gave the waiver application the necessary endorsement to advance the matter to a hearing before the City Council.

Patterson noted that several formalities must still be addressed to complete the permission of the project.

She said the district next month plans to start soliciting bids for the construction of the new high school.

 

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