By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
One problem faces commissioners when the old hospital
campus is sold&emdash;how can the future of the Mountainland
Head Start Pre-School be assured.
Presently, the old clinic, attached to the hospital by
a breeze-way, is used by the pre-school and is under lease
to the county. The lease would need to be assured during the
sale of the property if the facility is included in the
sale.
"I want Head Start to be able to use the building for
as long as they want to be there," said Wm. Boyd Howarth,
commission chairman.
"How is the lease worded? Is it transferable?" asked
Jared Eldridge, county attorney.
Cook said that the notice, as he had drafted it,
stated that all bidders should be aware that the old clinic
building is subject to a long term lease to Mountainland
Head Start for an amount that does not exceed ten dollars a
month and that the purchaser of the campus will be
responsible to continue that lease.
Eldridge was told to review a copy of the lease which
was prepared by AnnMarie Howard, deputy county attorney to
see if the requirement would support the intent of the
commission.
One way to guarantee the use, Eldridge said, was to
make stipulations on the sale contract.
"We need to make it clear in the stipulations that the
intent of Juab County is to allow Head Start to remain as
lessee of the building and that Juab County will take the
necessary steps to guarantee that the lease is honored,"
said Eldridge.
Breaking the pre-school away from the rest of the
property might substantially reduce its salability.
"I don't want to jeopardize Head Start," said Robert
Steele, commissioner, "but I think including the old clinic
makes the property more attractive to a buyer."
He said, to his way of thinking, selling the building
with the contract in place might make the entire sale more
appealing to a potential buyer because a use was already in
place which did enhance the property.
Nevertheless, Howarth said he wanted to make certain
the lease would be honored. He did not want the Head Start
program terminated by the buyer and wanted to make the lease
iron-clad enough that that could not be done.
Cook said even if the county retained the pre-school
portion of the property, the lease would come due in the
future, and even though the intent of the present commission
would be to renew it, a future commission might not want to
do so.
Eldridge said a way to guarantee the future use of the
one section of the building by Head Start was to record a
covenant on the deed.
Legally, such a covenant would assure the future use
of the section of the property by the pre-school even if the
building changed hands several times.
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