Schools

Letter to the Editor: CH-UH Schools Should Get New Appraisal For Millikin

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School Board should sell the property to Mosdos Ohr Hatorah, which plans to invest millions in renovations and repairs, says Susan Efroymson. Take our poll and tell us what you think.

Dear Editor:

The Board of Education has been disheartening. Mosdos has given a fair market value offer and the board cites rumored suspicion that Mosdos has ulterior motives as reason to ignore it. Mosdos Boys division is bursting at the seams. It has offices in corners. It has a classroom on the stage which is no longer usable as a stage anymore. It has tutoring going on beneath coats in corners of the hall. And it has no plans to use the property for anything other than the school. The Millikin property, if sold to Mosdos, would serve as elbow room for the boys and an opportunity strengthen the neighborhood. They have no plan for residential property and never did.

What it does have plans to do is revitalize the area including returning a playground and adding a ball park that would be open for public use at a cost of $1 million to $2 million on top of the . This would bring the area back to life and give others a reason to move here.

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No other offer to purchase the building has topped Mosdos, making Mosdos’s offer market value even at the top of the real estate bubble. It is a fanciful dream if the board hopes for an offer equal to the 2005 appraisal. It may be a decade or more before the market recovers, and it is pure speculation as to whether it will ever get that high again. Meanwhile, Millikin is costing the (district) $30,000 and it remains in disrepair, depressing the neighborhood. 

The same school board will soon be asking taxpayers for a huge levy. Selling to Mosdos would yield cash now, which it would not have to turn to the residents to come up with. Additionally, it could bank on annualized maintenance and transportation savings. The school board and open fair negotiations with Mosdos at this time.

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Susan Efroymson

Cleveland Heights


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