by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — There is a new plan in place for the old junior high school in Wellington (again). The Wellington City Council Tuesday approved a resolution supporting the plans of Commonwealth Development Corporation to turn the building into apartments for senior citizens.

That does not approve the project itself, but does give the company the go-ahead to pursue federal and state tax credits to make the construction happen.

This has been tried a couple of times over the past year or so, but Louie A. Lange III said he is confident his company based in Wisconsin will be able to pull the project together.

The building was sold by the schools last year to the highest bidder. Lange and his company have a contract in place to buy the building, contingent on things coming together as planned.

Lange said his company has been in business since 2001 and they have done about 40 projects and many of them involved refurbishing old schools into apartments. They have also done hospitals.

He said it really costs more to refurbish an old building than new construction would cost. But with state and federal tax credits, they feel they can make the project work.

Lange said he liked to help preserve old buildings, and part of the deal with the tax credits means they will have to preserve the historic nature of the building. The gymnasium and theater, for instance, will be preserved and used in some way apart from the apartments that will be developed.

Lange said his company was looking at some buildings in Nebraska last year and heard about the property here. After having his engineers and architects look it over, they decided to pursue the building.

They are planning on making 38 apartment units of one and two bedrooms renting for about $450 and $590 respectively.

To get the tax credits they must rent to seniors, though he wasn’t sure what the official age limit is. There are also some limitations concerning income, though it is not low income housing per se. Most of the units must rent for a certain percentage of the median rental price in the county.

With the resolution they will be able to submit an application for tax credits to the state on Feb. 5, and later will do so to the federal government for historical buildings through the National Park Service.

If everything goes well, they could begin construction by the end of this year, and have them completed by the end of 2017 and be ready to open early in 2018.

Lange said the company would continue to own the site after the apartments are built and there would be a locally hired property manager on site.

He also plans to use local contractors once work begins.

The council approved the resolution supporting the project unanimously.

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The city will have a work session meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the community room at the police department. They will be discussing community block grant applications with the Sumner County Economic Development Coordinator.

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Mayor Shelley Hansel said at some point they plan to discuss how the public participation portion of meetings are handled. Currently people have to sign up by the end of Friday to be allowed to speak at the next meeting. They will be considering whether to allow people to speak even if they have not signed up in advance. It was not clear when that discussion will be held, but it will be an item at a future work session.

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