Old High School Utility Bills Cut From $200K to $75K; Church Making Payments

June 4, 2009

For the first four years New Life Baptist Church leased the old Century High School for $1 a year from the Escambia School District while taxpayers footed the bill for nearly $200,000 in utilities.

After NorthEscambia.com uncovered the story on August 7 of last year, the school district went to work to sort out about $73,000 in Gulf Power electric bills and $124,000 in gas, water and sewage bills paid to the Town of Century. In an exclusive interview with NorthEscambia.com shortly after the story broke, New Life Pastor Irvin Stallworth acknowledged that the church had never paid any utility bills since moving into the building.

newlifepower.jpgThe problem, according to Ronnie Arnold, spokesperson for the school district, was that the space leased by the church at the old Century High shared utility meters with the rest of the complex. The school district continue to own and use, or allow use of, areas like the gym and football stadium where the utilities were not to be the responsibility of the church.

The district’s staff worked to determine what portion of the bills New Life owned, Arnold said. In that process, the associate superintendent said there were leaks and billing problems found with some of the meters.

The school district settled on $75,072,19 as the amount New Life Baptist church owed taxpayers. The rest of the approximately $200,000 in utility bills were either owned by the school district, a meter problem, or a billing problem, Arnold said.

Now New Life is current on a 10-year payment plan to pay back the $75,072.19. The church is paying  the school district 119 interest free payments of  $625.60, with the final 120th payment due in 2019 for $625.79. So far, the church has made seven payments, dropping the balance due to $70,692.99.

New utility meters serving the church’s leased portion of the old high school have been installed so that New Life will pay for its own utilities in the future, Arnold said.

The five year, $1 per year lease that New Life has on the building expires on October 1. That lease was negotiated by former Superintendent Jim Paul.

Current Superintendent  Malcolm Thomas has told the church he won’t renew the lease at the current $1 term. Instead, he wants the church to pay a fair market rate of $5 per square foot. The 30,327 square foot building would cost the church $12,636.25 per month, or $151,635 per year of a five year lease.

Thomas has also offered to allow the church to lease a smaller portion of the building, or purchase it outright at an appraised price.

Under the lease, the school district has provided maintenance on the building, and the BOE has maintained property insurance.

Comments

5 Responses to “Old High School Utility Bills Cut From $200K to $75K; Church Making Payments”

  1. David Huie Green on June 9th, 2009 5:28 pm

    only Paul Harvey knew the rest of the story and he be gone

  2. CAMSHAFT on June 8th, 2009 8:34 am

    Mr Green….If You knew the whole story, maybe You would understand , the whole story. Thanks though for Your comment.

  3. David Huie Green on June 5th, 2009 1:32 pm

    There’s more than one way to look at some things.

    Sandy, the mechanic for Ward does warranty work at the compound. My understanding is that he is the only one there who does warranty work.

    Assume he was not there. the buses needing work would have to be driven to Ward and the drivers would have to be picked up from Ward and then they would have to go back for them, which would still involve at least two people and a vehicle each time.

    Some warranty work might be five minute jobs but would eat up four man-hours and two vehicle-hours per job. Where’s the savings?

  4. CAMSHAFT on June 5th, 2009 10:08 am

    Also talking about free rent, there is a mechanic that works for Ward International that has a stall furnished to Him free at the the Texar drive garage. I would bet if someone ask some at the District ,their reply would be ..Oh He does the warranty work on the buses for the District, which is true but also the mechanics are doing warranty work and have been for years for free. We should not be furnishing Ward a stall with electricity, water and sometimes free labor when the taxpayer has purchased this warranty.And there has even been parts found in the trash that were new…..sounds like fraud.When the warranty runs out guess who will foot the bill……??????? US…..Can We afford to keep wasting money.

  5. CAMSHAFT on June 5th, 2009 8:30 am

    The same thing is going at Brownsville Middle School, a janitorial service has been in the buildind for a couple years at taxpayer expense.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News