CCSD2 sticks with MedBow Lodging

While the main reason for the special meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees on May 4 was to decide whether to continue with the districts Adapted Learning Plan, they also made a decision on property owned by the district in Medicine Bow.

As was reported previously (see “School district left with a ‘lot’ of questions” on page 14 of the April 22 Saratoga Sun), MedBow Lodging, LLC had informed the school district in a letter that they were not interested in extending their lease, which was set to expire on May 9. With only a few weeks left before the lease was up, this left the district scrambling for a solution; either talk MedBow Lodging into a short-term lease or find someone else willing to lease the property.

Further complicating the issue was the fact that approximately 10 recreational vehicles were parked on the property and renting from MedBow Lodging. While another wind energy company, Viridis Eolia had made an offer to purchase the property, the board was united on their intention of not selling the property to the company. 

CCSD2 Superintendent Jim Copeland informed the Board of Trustees at the special meeting that four different individuals had contacted him with interest in leasing the property. Of those, only two had submitted a written proposal; Hayden Bricker and Mike and Rose Hojio. Additionally, Copeland had contacted Tyler Casebier and Darren Delimont of MedBow Lodging about a short-term lease. Both Casebier and Delimont, in a reversal of their letter, informed Copeland that they were in favor of another 12-month lease with the district.

In the original contract with MedBow Lodging, the district received a $15,000 deposit and $1,000 a month. The proposed contracts from Bricker and the Hojios were similar in the monthly payments, both offering $1,000 a month, but offered different deposits. Bricker’s proposal was a $1,500 deposit and the Hojios offered a $6,000 deposit. While the Hojios were unable to attend the meeting, MedBow Lodging and Bricker were in attendance via teleconference.

“For the purpose of this meeting, I would like to speak to the board about our lease. Initially, when Jim Copeland contacted us and asked us for our intention, we were going to be figuring out where we were with COVID and what was going to happen with our other businesses and also MedBow Lodging. As you guys can probably figure out, based on your own lives, this turned our lives upside down and we weren’t really sure how to respond to the pandemic or what was going to happen,” said Casebier. “So, Darren and I initially decided, ‘Hey, let’s let this thing go and give someone else an opportunity to take it over’ because we were pretty deep in our separate business challenges. We were struggling to find our feet, so initially our intention was not to renew our lease. Thankfully, as time went on, we figured out a way to navigate through the situation.”

As discussion continued, Delimont informed the Board of Trustees that MedBow Lodging had invested approximately $30,000 in the property with half of that being towards updating the electrical systems. He added that both he and Casebier would be interested in purchasing the property and making that a part of the renewed lease.

Following MedBow Lodging, Bricker informed the board of his intentions with the property. 

“My intentions were to bid on the property solely because I’ve spoken to a couple of people renting over there and they were asking if there was going to be any renovations to the property anytime soon and it was my intention to lease the land and start doing improvements immediately,” said Bricker. “I know my bid is a little bit low but I’m sure you guys understand that, with the economy the way it is, I kind of have a little bit of concern putting out an enormous amount of money. My intentions are also to buy the property at some point, probably after a one year lease. I understand if the opportunity shows itself for someone to purchase the property immediately.”

Following the presentations from the two interested parties able to join the meeting, it turned over to board discussion with CCSD2 Boardmember Mike Boardman expressing his concerns about continuing a lease with MedBow Lodging as well as his objections to selling the property.

“The easiest thing for us would be to go with MedBow Lodging but, given that they left us short with completing that lease agreement, that gives me some issues related to trustworthiness,” said Boardman. “Had they just completely have left us hanging, they would not have fulfilled their obligations to put up the fence, fix the road up. Essentially, the road’s a mucky mess.”

Boardman added that if the contract with MedBow Lodging were extended, he would prefer to see the company get the issues such as the fence and the road addressed as soon as possible.

“There are some contractors around here hungry to get the work done. With that being said, that’s the easiest for us, given the circumstance. I would recommend that we do an extended lease until 12/31/2020. That way, if we’re going to keep doing this, from the standpoint of managing a year-to-year lease, that it’d be easier to start from the first of every year,” Boardman said. “As far as purchasing, I’m not in favor of putting that into any agreement yet.”

The motion was made to extend the contract with MedBow Lodging until the end of the calendar year and was passed unanimously with Charlie George abstaining due to conflict.

The next regular meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees will be at 4 p.m. on May 18 at the Central Office in Saratoga.