State Grange, Palouse Art Council deadlock on purchase of building

The Palouse Arts Council is on the verge of making another offer on buying the Palouse Grange hall, citing problems working with the state Grange, official owner of the building.

The council has maintained the aging community building for the past eight years and wants to legally own it in order to apply for public funding for needed repairs to the structure.

The Arts Council believes the price quoted by the state Grange is exorbitant, but the state grange property manager said their price is greatly reduced for the value of the building site.

In an interview with the Gazette Tuesday, property manager for the state Grange, Terry Hunt, said the Arts Council had approached the state Grange about buying the building. Hunt said he made a reasonable offer to the group, taking into account the repairs they had already made to the building. He added if he had appraised the hall for its fair market value the price would be much higher.

The council first offered $5,000, but in December they raised that offer to $20,000. The state Grange’s price was initially $140,000; it is now $70,000.

An Arts Council press release said they made their last offer in December and will issue another offer by the end of March.

“There is no one to maintain it. If we walk away from this building, there is no Grange group in this town that will pay the taxes and maintain the monthly overhead for this building,” said Shandra Bohn, president of the Palouse Arts Council, in an interview with the Gazette. “It will just end up getting shut down and becoming a vacant building.”

The council believes the building is in dire need of some basic repairs. They don’t want to make the expenditures unless they own the building.

Owning the building could also allow them leeway to apply for public funding to pay for repairs.

The council believes the price for the building should be lower because their group has regularly paid the monthly utility bills for the building and has done several repairs over the years.

Hunt said he has taken the value of the repairs under consideration with the price he is currently quoting.

“I’m already giving them a wheel of a deal. I’ve already got people concerned because I’m giving them such a good deal to start out with,” he said.

Hunt pointed out the Arts Council has never paid rent to the state Grange, which is the legal owner of the building.

“We never got a dime from that,” he said.

Hunt said the state Grange regularly sells former Grange halls to the public. The site in Palouse has not been appraised recently to determine the fair market value of the building, he said. Hunt added that value would likely be considerably more than the reduced price he is offering the council.

The Palouse Arts Council has cared for the grange hall for the past eight years. During this time, they have put in repairs to the building and paid the monthly bills for electricity, water and heating. The council regularly opens the hall for community events like the annual arts show or the PEO variety show.

In the council’s press release, they wrote out a history of how the council acquired the management of the grange. The original Palouse Grangers which owned the building were dwindling in numbers by the early 2000s and almost closed it in 2003.

“An agreement was struck between the newly formed group, the Palouse Arts Council, and the existing Grangers that would allow for the lease of the building with the intent of purchasing the building for a nominal fee within five years,” their press release said.