PARIS — Interim Town Manager Sawin Millett presented selectmen Monday with a draft document that seeks to find those interested in buying the Mildred M. Fox School.
He said he and Glen Holmes, director of lending at Community Concepts Finance Corp., met Friday with a party interested in the historic three-story brick building at 10 East Main St.
The school is home to roughly 50 students attending Oxford Hills Christian Academy, which is temporarily housed in the South Paris Baptist Church on Route 26 because of heating issues in the building.
“Getting the Fox School into a position where it can be on the tax rolls and completing the lease with the Christian Academy were goals I wanted to see through to fruition,” Millett said. “Without going into detail, I think Glen and I were impressed with the work already done by that party. … I think the potential is there to transform this property into a real asset.”
They had discussed timelines, options and outcomes in a general way,” he said, and not on behalf of selectmen.
Millett and Holmes are looking for the best course of action for the board to get the building sold to the right party as quickly as possible, which could avoid hiring a broker.
“This is an open-door opportunity to solicit to the general public … with the goal being we would get those applications in the first of March,” Millett said.
“This has been a process many towns have found across the country to be much more beneficial,” Holmes said.
He noted requests for expressions of interest are nonbinding, and nonprofit and for-profit entities can submit an application outlining the organization’s plan, including financing, whether or not it was tax-exempt, and other factors.
Millett said this would indicate whether or not the party is interested in the building itself and/or the two lots voters approved for purchase at town meeting in June 2015.
“I think it opens up a lot of opportunity; I think there is at least one, if not more, options out there that will put this back on the tax rolls,” Holmes said, adding he’d reach out to other organizations in attempt to drum up some interest. “I would love to have people to bid on this because the more, the merrier.”
Selectman Vic Hodgkins confirmed with Holmes that the bidding he had mentioned was actually a precursor to formal bidding on the property.
“It is very clear in the document if you decide at the end of this process, ‘No we want to pass, we want to do something else,’ you can do that,” Holmes said.
Millett said selectmen have two weeks until their next meeting to go over the draft. If they approve it, applications would be due by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, so they could be reviewed by selectmen at their first meeting in March.
Millett hopes the broken pellet boiler at the school will be running again this weekend so students and teachers can return by Monday, Feb. 1.
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