Board buys property for stadium entrance

Elyria School Board approved buying about an acre of land on Oberlin Road for parking and access to the new stadium.

The former homesite at 398 Oberlin Road sits near Aldi and Rural King stores and is adjacent to stadium property the board already owns, said Amy Higgins, director of communications for Elyria City Schools at 42101 Griswold Road in Elyria.

The board agreed to pay $18,320, which is the amount of money the owner, Jim Wall, invested in the property, Higgins said.

Wall is director of business services for the district.

When Wall saw the property go up for sale last year, the district had not passed the levy so the board could not buy it, Higgins said.

As a private citizen, Wall bought the property through a foreclosure sale and razed the buildings at his own expense to limit the liability, Higgins said.

“It opens the opportunity for an entry way on Oberlin Road,” Higgins said. “We ran into problems until the board bought this land. There’s a little triangle of land we’re trying to get, but we don’t need it now. The board still wants it. It would make more room.

“Mr. Wall found this before the bond issue passed,” Higgins said. “He saw that property go up for sale. At the time the district wasn’t interested in the property. He did it on his own. When it appeared that it would be an ideal entrance for us, he let the architect know he purchased that property because it was in foreclosure.

“There’s no profit by Jim Wall,” Higgins said. “There was a house and garage. He demolished it on his own. He didn’t want the liability of an empty house sitting there. There are a couple properties in that square that if they go up for sale, if that were an option down the road, the board might be interested in them.”

She is not aware of any other property needed at the proposed school sites, she said.

The district is waiting on information about the wetlands so the stadium complex project can move forward, she said.

“The Wall land ingress to the stadium site also allows us to recover about 200 parking spaces we were going to lose to wetlands,” Higgins said.