Reclaim makes it officials




 

 

Reclaim Community is officially filing paperwork to become a non-profit LLC organization with seven board members as they await access to begin work on Jasper School.

“We’ll probably close in another couple weeks,” said Elicia Kortus, Reclaim Community’s leader.

The group Reclaim Community raised the $25,000 required to purchase the school between December 2015 and February 2016. The school property owned by the late Dick Haase was made available for purchase on an online auction at the end of 2015.

Becoming a non-profit LLC will protect individual members from becoming liable for the property. But Reclaim Community will remain under the fiscal sponsorship of Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.

Six of the seven board members attended a meeting Wednesday, March 30 to sign the paperwork to become a non-profit LLC. Those members were Elicia Kortus, Randy Larson, Jason Madtson, Terry Skyberg, Kristie Weinkauf, and Ryan Reker. The seventh board member, Jon Hoyme, was out of town at the time of the meeting and unable to attend.

The board will serve for one year and then members will be elected each year after that, however they may decide to elect half the board at one time to avoid a complete turnover of the board at the same time.

The Reclaim Community’s purpose as an LLC will be to “support preserving old historic buildings as an economically sound and sustainable way to improve our communities,” according to Kortus.

The group has yet to take possession of the building. According to Kortus, Yvette VanDerBrink of VanDerBrink Auctions said they are still waiting to close probate.

VanDerBrink is currently looking into a liability release that would allow Reclaim Community to begin work on the building, but said that it was beyond the scope of a basic liability release form and would take time to draw up.

The board will have a meeting just before or after closing to organize workdays. They will start another fundraising campaign for short-term stability of the building, and offer examples of what donations will pay for. Initial goals include roof repairs, ventilation, mold issues, clean up and shrubbery removal on the west side of the school.

Cameras now watching and neighbors too

The former Jasper school building was vandalized over the past few weeks but it won’t be easy for future interlopers.

Terry Skyberg, one of the board members of the newly-formed non-profit LLC, said he believed the vandalism happened over the past few weeks. Someone had kicked-in a boarded window in the office in the band room, and glass throughout the inside of the building had been smashed.

Skyberg plans to board the window, screwing everything on tight to make it more difficult to break in. He also plans to set up action cameras inside the school to try and catch anyone who may be vandalizing the property.

Neighbors of the property have also been informed to look out for anyone seen roaming around the school, Skyberg said.

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