Town explores selling part of Venton property to Regional School District 19 and sites new fire station possibility

Ryan, speaking for town staff, described the Venton school parcel as more than 20 acres the town already owns and said it could be subdivided to provide a parcel for Regional School District 19 or to site a new fire station to improve response times in the southern part of town. "The fact that we already own the Venton property…makes it a very likely candidate to receive a fire station in the future," Ryan said.

Ryan said the town has done conceptual design work for a modern, three‑station coverage model and that a new station would not need the full 20‑plus acres; the town estimates a station would require something north of five acres, plus frontage on a state road to permit rapid apparatus access. He and other participants noted that an ideal frontage point for a subdivided region parcel would use access off Sterns Road; the subdivided parcel discussed in the meeting was estimated at roughly 13 acres.

On value, Ryan said the town assessor provided an order‑of‑magnitude estimate and the committee’s working ballpark for the subdivided parcel is about $300,000–$350,000, but he emphasized any sale would be subject to a formal appraisal and to council authorization and public hearing. "We think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 to $350,000…again, I'm sure this would all be subject to an appraisal anyway," he said.

Committee members raised infrastructure questions. The Venton site is not currently served by public water or sewer, and staff said designers are not yet worried that a fire station would be operationally prevented by lack of public utilities; a private well and septic are likely to be feasible but could increase project and grant costs. The committee cautioned that adding water or sewer service would add expense and could affect grant eligibility or the size of a state award.

School administrators and staff raised the possibility of co‑locating alternative education programs (referred to in the discussion as the Star program and the depot program, and in the transcript as operations associated with Reynolds and the depot) on the subdivided parcel. Ryan and others said the town is open to negotiating with Regional School District 19 about shared use or purchase, but any transfer would require formal council authorization and a public‑process sale.

State grant rules also figured in the discussion. A staff member said the Department of Administrative Services has concerns about how Chapter 173 grant rules apply to a complex scenario involving multiple programs on one campus. She warned that if a district received grant assistance for an existing school building that later ceased to be used for public purposes, the district could owe a refund to the state for any unamortized balance of that grant assistance.

Next steps: staff will pursue a formal appraisal if the region expresses interest, town staff will seek council authorization to negotiate before any sale, and committee members requested a meeting with state grant administrators to clarify Chapter 173 implications. No vote or sale decision was taken at the meeting.