A previous version of this story featured a photo of Newport High School. LINK apologizes for the error.
Bellevue city officials recently discovered many of the school district’s properties actually belong to the city.
At their Oct. 9 meeting, council members heard an ordinance to rectify that situation and return several school properties — including the stadium and the high school building itself — to the schools.
Plans have been in the works to renovate the Bellevue High School football stadium, also known as Leo Gilligan Field. Yet, it was unclear who owned Tiger Lane next to the stadium.
When city officials did a title research, they discovered that ownership had been transferred from the schools to the city in the 1970s, and that city actually owns many other school facilities as well.
“We found out as we went through all the deeds that the tennis courts, the football field, the gymnasium and parking lot and Bellevue High School are all owned by the city…since 1971,” said City Administrator Frank Warnock.
“The reason for this was for bonding purposes,”’ he explained.
Cities would take over school properties and issue Industrial Revenue Bonds, a common way municipalities could help raise funds for projects. Once a project was complete and the bonding was finished, the plan was for the property to be returned the schools.
That was the plan, but the title research revealed the return never happened.
Warnock said that is the purpose for the ordinance. It will straighten things out and return the properties to school ownership. He noted that he had not yet finished the title search and asked council if they would agree to add Grandview Elementary to the list of properties to be returned should he discover that the city owned that as well.
Council voted to amend the ordinance to include Grandview if needed and voted to approve the ordinance.