City declines former Newton Country Club donation

In a 3-1 decision with councilwoman Evelyn George casting the lone no vote, the city failed to pass a resolution to accept the donation of the former Newton Country Club building Monday night.

Four votes were needed for approval to pass the motion for the $158,960 property to become city owned and both council members Jeremy Biondi and Steven Mullan were absent from the meeting.

“We did talk about the Cardinal Ridge development about six months ago and at that time the direction from the council was the need to have a new street in so the developers would be able to start work this spring,” George said. “I agreed as a member of this council to the purchase and the city getting involved, just getting it started and then get out and let the private developers move forward. This seems to be slowing things down, and I am not in favor of having property that we don’t need. We need to get that development kicked off and get out of the way so private developers move along.”

The proposal for the donation from XCO II, LLC and Walt Smith included the former Newton Country Club clubhouse building and the 1.63 acres it sits on. The property is adjacent to the previously purchased 4.25 acres by the city for the Cardinal Ridge town home subdivision. If approved, the suggested plan for the building was to burn it down as a part of a fire training exercise.

The proposal did not, however, include The Gingerbread House daycare center west of the property, which is still owned by Bill and Georganne Talsma. The outstanding status of the additional property was shown to be a major concern for several council members.

Newton Director of Finance and Development Bryan Friedman said while the day care center is not a part of the donation, it does have the same tenant as the Smith property. Currently housed in the clubhouse is a chiropractic clinic, Spinal Solutions, and salon, DeVyne Solutions.

He said in all likelihood the day care would relocate and meetings with Talsma have been scheduled to discuss what his plans are for the property.

Newton Development Corporation Executive Director Frank Liebl shed some light on the drive behind contacting Smith about the property and ultimately having him donate it to the city.

“I think what led us to have those conversations was early on we had two different developers come out and look at that site where the city has purchased the property, and both times developers asked, ‘what about these buildings?’” Liebl said. “Their comment was it would be better if they were gone to really give us the development we really want. That is what brought us to Mr. Smith to see if he would be interested in donating.”

Regarding the current tenants, Liebl said he has been working with them almost daily to find new locations and as of Friday, the owner had contractors making bids on potential locations.

“The person that owns the daycare made the comment that they didn’t really want a day care there anymore because of the ongoing construction, not only for the first town homes but hopefully as we turn this over to a developer, down the road, five, six, seven years there is still all of that construction going on,” Liebl said. “Their desire was to maybe not to have the day care operating in that area, but we do have to find a new location.”

When asked by George if the property is necessary to move forward with current development plans, Friedman answered no. He said the city is currently under contract for the connection piece at 12th Street, the new Seventh Avenue corridor and that piece is independent of the decision on the donation.

As discussions wrapped up, the unknown factor of the future of the day care building still loomed over the decision to be made by the council.

“It is nice to have something donated but it is also a quandary in terms of, it is donated, we are going to burn it down then there is this day care center in the middle of the project sitting there,” councilwoman Lin Chapé said. “I think that makes sense. When I drove over there and I start to look at the buildings again, but that building, the day care center is a thorn.”

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com