What will become of the land where the old pool/auditorium once stood?

It depends on who’s the highest bidder.

The property on North Evarts Street will be put up for auction at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9.

“In my opinion, I think if we advertise it for a while and have a public auction, we might have more interest than if it’s a sealed bid,” Rob McCray, chairman of the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees, said last week. “We might possibly get more competition for the property and a higher bid.”

During its regular meeting last week, the board unanimously voted to hold a public auction for the property.

The minimum bid on the property is $136,000. The 1.29-acre lot at the 200 block of North Evarts Street is zoned as residential general.

Superintendent Kevin Mitchell said more than one potential buyer has shown interest in the property.

“They can’t offer, because we can’t sell it without going through this process,” Mitchell said. “Certainly they’ve come in and said they’d like to buy it ... but we have to follow a process, and that’s either sealed bid, public auction or we can actually sell it for a nominal fee to another governing agency.”

At a public hearing last month, a group of residents asked the school board to consider giving the land for a new Powell Branch Library.

However, the Park County Commission — which oversees the library system — has not requested the property from the school district. County Commissioner Tim French told school leaders last month that a new Powell library is “not going to happen any time real soon.”

During last week’s school board meeting, Trustee Patty Wurzel said she personally felt that the library group “put the cart before the horse.” She said she wasn’t sure if the group had approached county commissioners about it.

“I have no problem with having a library in town, across from the middle school. I like it where it is right now. But we could give it to the commissioners and they could sell it next week,” Wurzel said. “I really don’t feel that is in our best interest as a district.”

While the school district could give the land for an intended use, there’s no guarantee it would become that, she said.

“Once you give it, it’s no longer yours to have control over,” Wurzel said.

Anna Sapp, a library board member, said Friday there isn’t a plan in place with commissioners for a new Powell library at that location.

She said the library board has tried to schedule a meeting with commissioners to discuss it more, but hasn’t gotten a response.

“I find it disappointing that our commissioners couldn’t see that as a possibility for the future,” Sapp said Friday.

She said the current library “isn’t what it should be.”

Sapp added it’s unfortunate more people from the Powell community haven’t stepped up to the plate to ask commissioners for a new library.

Frances Clymer, director of the Park County Library System, said Friday, “At this point we are looking at how we can best adapt the current facility to increased use and space constraints.”

Superintendent Mitchell had asked the library representatives to have county commissioners write a letter specifically requesting the property, and the commission has not, McCray said.

“I have a hard time giving a district asset to another entity that didn’t specifically request it,” he said.

McCray added that he thinks it’s a valuable piece of property.

“I think that the property will generate some interest,” Mitchell said Thursday. “It’s in a nice location and is basically shovel-ready — water, sewer, everything is right there. It’s ready for someone to develop it.”

Trustee Trace Paul said an auction is a good place for buyers to express their interest.

“They want to get that piece of property and they don’t want to play the game of the envelope deal,” Mitchell added during last week’s school board meeting. “They want to see the other bidder in the eye.”

The Sept. 9 auction will take place at the North Evarts property and just prior to the school board’s regular meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m. at the Central Administration Office across the street. The board could vote on the sale that night.

Last week the school board directed Mitchell to hire an auctioneer for the sale. Mitchell said he signed a contract Thursday with Travis Swenson, an auctioneer and broker with Metzler and Moore Realty and Swenson’s Auctions and Appraisals.

“The property itself is now going to be listed with Travis Swenson,” Mitchell said, adding all calls need to go to Swenson, not the school district.

Currently, a trailer from Groathouse Construction is on the site, which has served as a staging area for the middle school construction project across the street.

The Groathouse trailer will be moved to another site by Oct. 1, Mitchell said.

It’s possible development could begin on the property before winter, depending on the buyer, he said.

Money from the land sale will go in the district’s building fund, Mitchell said. While the state provides major maintenance and building funding for the local district, there are some projects the state won’t pay for, he said.

An example is the old football stadium at the middle school.

“A school district our size is only allowed one track and field, so the one that we still have at the middle school — all maintenance on that is up to the district,” Mitchell said. “We don’t receive any funding from the state to take care of that.”

The state only covers the cost for the new stadium at the high school. Even then, the state will only pay to maintain six track lanes for a 3A school, so the school district is responsible for maintaining the other two lanes.

“Those are real difficult issues for us to work through, but we know that at some point, we’ll have to spend our own money, and it’s best if we don’t take it out of teaching and learning money,” Mitchell said. “It’s best that we create this fund, like we have, and try to keep it at a certain level so we can pay for these things and not have to take it out of the general fund.”

Money from previous building or property sales also has gone into the district’s building fund, Mitchell said. To his knowledge, the school district has never auctioned off property, he said.

The old Powell High School Natatorium/Auditorium was located at the North Evarts site for decades until it was demolished in August 2010.