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Kingsport inching toward purchase of Lynn View Middle
BLOUNTVILLE — A proposal for Sullivan County to “step aside” and let the city of Kingsport buy the former Lynn View Middle School looks to be headed for approval by the Sullivan County Commission. It has gotten a thumbs-up from two of the commission’s three primary committees this week. And it’s up for discussion tonight by the third such committee. It could come for a vote by the full commission on May 18. It would need 13 “yes” votes to gain approval. The Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen has agreed to pay Tri-Cities Christian Schools (TCCS) $190,000 for the property. TCCS officials notified the county Feb. 5 that the private school system intended to sell the property, which it purchased from the county in 2005. The contract between the county and TCCS for that property transfer gave the county first right of refusal on buying the old school if TCCS ever decided to sell it. The Sullivan County Commission was set to vote at its March meeting on whether or not to buy the school back. But a few days before that meeting TCCS notified the county the property was “no longer available for purchase.” It had been revealed during county commissioners’ discussions of the issue that the TCCS’s contract with the county could be interpreted to mean the county wouldn’t have had to pay TCCS any money to get the property back. Kingsport officials had expressed interest in leasing or buying the property from the county, had the county repurchased it. As the Sullivan County Commission’s Executive Committee discussed the issue Wednesday, commissioner Moe Brotherton repeatedly said he is not opposed to the city buying the property — but he’d like to see the county make some money on the deal. He distributed what he said were papers detailing the city’s multiple purchases of private properties around city schools. “Yet they don’t want to give us anything for the high school over there,” Brotherton said. “I have a real concern about us giving away our rights.” Commissioner Wayne McConnell, lead sponsor of the resolution to have the county “step aside” in favor of the city buying the Lynn View property directly from TCCS, pointed out to Brotherton that the county does not own the Lynn View property. Brotherton said his main worry is for the residents of the Lynn Garden area and whether or not they will continue to have access to athletic facilities at the Lynn View site — he asked McConnell if the deal on the table included the athletic fields across the street. McConnell said those fields — owned by the Sullivan County Board of Education (BOE) and leased to the Lynn Garden Optimist Club for community use — will be a separate issue.
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