$510,000 paid for school site

Baw Baw Shire will pay $510,000 for the old Yarragon Primary School site.

Mayor Danny Goss announced last week that council had agreed to the valuer-general’s price of $510,000 plus GST for the site.

“While considerably higher than council’s own valuations, council believes this site will be a valuable community asset long into the future.

“Council and the community can now move forward with certainty around planning for the future use and development of the site,” he said.

Cr Goss said the state government’s treasury and finance department, who was handling the transfer of titles, had not provided a specific timeframe for the site to be transferred to council.

Council agreed in October to retain the former school site in Rollo St for community use.

At the time of making the decision, both the state government and council had obtained independent valuations but the valuer-general had not provided a price.

Council received a certified valuation of the site in July and forwarded the valuation and a letter of offer to the state government on July 29.

The value of the site has not been revealed by council.

Council has received three independently certified valuations for the property. All valuations were significantly lower than those obtained by the valuer general’s office. Neither council or the state government will reveal their respective valuations.

When the matter was discussed by council in October, Cr Goss said the valuer-general’s office had denied council a valuers’ conference to discuss the prices.

He said council had an obligation to “pay the right prices for these assets.”

Police are investigating an attempted burglar at a Yarragon business last week.

The incident occurred between 6.45pm on December 7 and 9.20am on December 8.

Police said offenders attempted to gain entry to the Rollo St business by forcing open the front door to the premises and breaking the door handle in the process.

Offenders also attempted to gain entry via a side entry where a mesh door was kicked in and bent.