Prior Lake-Savage school board approves $1M purchase agreement for elementary land

Prior Lake American

An agreement for more than 17 acres of land for the construction of a new elementary school in the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District was made official on Monday night.

The Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board unanimously approved a purchase agreement with Prior Lake Aggregates to purchase the land near Big Sky Estates at $60,000 per acre, or more than $1 million in total, according to the agreement.

The land will be used for a new elementary school, a project that was included in the $109.3 million referendum approved by voters in November 2017. Also included in the referendum was a new building for the Bridges Area Learning Center and additions to Prior Lake High School and six other schools.

In March 2015, Prior Lake Aggregates agreed in a non-binding letter to sell the land to the district for an elementary school, but the letter expired in December 2015. A new letter was not drafted at that time.

The district’s communications director, Kristi Mussman, said in December 2017 the company told the district it would honor the purchase price stated in the original letter of $60,000 per acre.

Construction was originally planned to begin in 2018 to have the elementary school in 2019, but the estimated opening is now 2020, due to Prior Lake Aggregates mining $6 million worth of materials from the site before the district is able to claim the land.

According to the draft agreement, the closing date for the land is May 2019.

Prior Lake Aggregates will also reclaim and fill the mining area to the district’s wishes and the compaction will be tested by Braun Intertec, an environment consulting and testing firm, as per the terms of the agreement.