Kelliher faces problem of selling old school

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

March 19, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Selling an old school building, with an idea of turning it into something other than what it was designed, is no easy matter.

The Kelliher School District faces that problem as it and the North Beltrami Development Corp. test the waters this spring to sell the old Kelliher School after construction is completed on a new $9 million school.

There are some success stories, however, as noted by Peg Knutson, a Minnesota Extension Service educator formerly in Grant County who studied the issue.

• Gully, which has a population of 128 and located just off Highway 92, lost its school district in 1977 due to a lack of students. In 1978, spurred in part by Sanna Brovold, a former teacher, the building was purchased by the East Polk County Development Achievement Center Inc. However, the cost of transporting the clients became prohibitive, and eventually the center moved back to Fosston, its original location. Fate was to intervene next. A fire left the town without a grocery store, and the federal government mandated the town needed an improved post office. Brovold stepped in once again and sparked a public/private partnership to develop the building to hold a grocer story and post office. Currently housed in this former school building are a U.S. Post Office, a grocery store, a café, theater facilities with a stage, a beauty shop and eight senior citizen housing units, all developed at a cost of $222,000. "I feel gully would have been dead without the mall," said Brovold. "When farmers come into the seed mill, they like to have a good cup of coffee. And we have a good cook now, so things have been going good."

• Grand Rapids, which has a population of about 8,000, developed its old school into a multi-purpose building as well. In 1972, ownership of Central School was transferred to the city of Grand Rapids and soon became an economic development issue. The downtown business community was strongly inclined to tear it down, but the building was saved by a Blandin Foundation grant. Housed on the second and third floors are the Itasca County Historical Society and the Judy Garland Exhibit Museum. The first floor is home to the First Grade Restaurant, a sewing and craft shop and an antique store.

• Delavan, which has a population of 300 and is located in the farming country of south-central Minnesota, was about to lose its school when it was targeted to be consolidated. The community did lose its high school, but received a Blandin Foundation grant to make the school into a "magnet" elementary school with a special focus on agriculture. The Delavan Argi-Science experiment started in about 1992, school Principal Kevin Grant said, but unfortunately the community lost its battle because starting next year the elementary students will also be consolidated into the Blue Earth district, much like their older counterparts had been. As of next year, the Delavan school building also will be up for sale, he said. "The community would like to do something with the building," Grant said. "But there's the reality of who'll be paying for the upkeep."