Pilsbury Update
Pillsbury proposal carries $30M tag
Posted: Monday, August 16, 2010
OWATONNA — Less than a week before the state-mandated deadline for declaring a ballot issue, the Owatonna school district has asked the public to consider purchasing the Pillsbury campus.
Formerly Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, the campus that has functioned as an educational institution in Owatonna since 1877 closed its doors in December 2008 after declining enrollment stunted the institution’s funds.
Though a few organizations have considered making an offer, the campus has remained vacant since.
Superintendent Tom Tapper said it was not very long after the campus closed that people began to call him, suggesting the campus be acquired by the Owatonna school district. After being approached by several community members, including alumni of Owatonna High School, Tapper scheduled meetings in May with the district’s architectural firm, ATS&R, in order to conduct a review of the buildings on the Pillsbury campus. “The discussion was really two-fold,” said Tapper on Monday.
He said the first question for the district was what condition the buildings were in and the second question surrounded the possible uses of the grounds for the Owatonna school district.
During a public forum held Monday night at Owatonna Junior High School, a full crowd of concerned citizens joined the school board to hear the results. Tapper made a presentation, along with representatives of ATS&R and Owatonna Director of Finance and Operations Tom Sager, on what it would take to acquire and use the Pillsbury campus.
Tapper said it is not without recognizing the costs and it is not without recognizing the economic climate that the board is considering this decision. In a column printed in today’s paper, he acknowledged that the state of the economy may amount to low interest rates, competitive bidding and the potential to create jobs in Owatonna. Tapper told his audience Monday that he had not yet made a recommendation to the board, and that his greatest concern was that asking for a building bond may cause the voters not to renew an operating levy currently in existence for Owatonna schools. “Any concern that I have is that we would jeopardize that levy,” said Tapper.
What the school board has been asked to consider is a “three-ballot question.” If the school board votes on Friday to put a question on the ballot, it will ask the voters not only to continue funding operations as they have been, but to also provide additional funding for all-day every-day kindergarten and to provide funding for a building bond.
On the ballot, the first question would ask voters to let the school district revoke the current operating levy and in its place instate an operating levy of the same amount for five years. Though this would pose no additional taxes for Owatonna residents, the current operating levy expires in three years.
The second question on the ballot would ask voters to support an additional referendum for all-day every-day kindergarten, a program that Tapper said would be a possibility if the district had additional space.
The third question, which would be dependent on the passage of the second question, would ask voters to support a building bond for the purchase the Pillsbury campus.
Sager gave the public the bottom line at Monday’s meeting. He said in order to provide operations and maintenance in the Pillsbury campus buildings, the district would need $370,000. In order to provide staffing for all-day every-day kindergarten, the district would need twice the resources it has now — $580,000. In order to provide supplies and materials, the district would also need twice what it has now — $26,700. The total cost of maintaining the buildings on the campus and providing all-day every-day kindergarten would be $976,700.
Sager said approving the second ballot question would cover that amount of $976,700. For a homeowner in Owatonna whose home cost $150,000, that would amount to $72.69 annually per home.
Representatives from ATS&R said the purchase, renovation and maintenance of the Pillsbury campus would cost $30 million, a figure which includes $20.5 million for the purchase and repairs, and $9.5 million for reconstruction and reconfiguration as a K-12 educational facility.
Sager said the district was considering paying off the bond over about 12.2 years, with $14.57 million in interest — an option which would cost a homeowner whose house cost $150,000 a sum of $89.06 annually.
The total additional cost on top of the current operating levy, Sager said, would be $161.75 annually per homeowner, amounting to $13.48 per month.
Before the purchase can be made, however, the issue must go to a public vote, and before that can happen, members of the Owatonna school board must approve the question for the ballot in the general election.
The decision to move forward will be made at a special board meeting at 7:30 a.m. Friday. There will be an opportunity for public comment at the start of the meeting.
Information Gained from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=119743
Pillsbury proposal not open and shut
OWATONNA — Until December 2008, the buildings on the Pillsbury campus were bustling, with students shuffling through the hallways to get to class, students hurrying home to the dormitories to study and students popping into the gym for physical training. About 20 months later, the campus is nearly falling apart.
Not only is the face brick on the exterior of the buildings in decay, but water infiltration is a problem in nearly every basement, and the power plant on the campus still has boilers that are more than 100 years old.
These and other problems were presented to the public on Aug 16th as the Owatonna school board held a forum at Owatonna Junior High School to ask voters if they would support a purchase of the Pillsbury campus by the Owatonna school district. Before the public was given an opportunity to comment, they heard presentations from Superintendent Tom Tapper, Director of Operations and Finance Tom Sager and two representatives from ATS&R, the district’s architectural firm.
Paul Erickson, president of ATS&R, and Eric Anderson, who worked on a team that conducted an assessment of the buildings, depicted an aerial view of the campus on a projector in order to share their findings with the public.
The ATS&R team conducted a walk-through of each building on the Pillsbury campus, looking at both internal and external structures and evaluating the mechanical, electrical, structural and civil engineering of the facilities. “We also looked at the buildings and how they meet code,” said Erickson.
Erickson said what the architectural firm found was that the buildings, in part because of their age, needed a lot of work — a sum including $20.5 million for the purchase, repair and removal of some buildings and $9.5 million in reconstruction and reconfiguration as a K-12 learning center.
“From the street, it looks great. It’s a beautiful site,” said Erickson. “Then you walk up to the buildings and you do begin to see that there are some conditions that need to be addressed.”
He said due to the water that in some places seeped all the way through the wall, mold had developed in many basement rooms and already the signs of abandon were starting to show. ATS&R architects were suspicious of lead possibly being contained in the walls, asbestos being found and the large amounts of vermiculite that were used — it’s a naturally occurring mineral that can harbor asbestos. “There are some buildings that simply do not fit the program and would be removed,” said Erickson.
The proposal
Under the proposal, the Owatonna school district would purchase the entire Pillsbury campus, which sits adjacent to both Washington Elementary School and Owatonna High School. Many of the buildings, including the men’s and women’s dormitories, would be razed. The buildings that would be preserved would include Old Main, Pillsbury Hall, Kelly Hall, Jefts Hall and the headmaster’s house.
The other buildings, the Drill Hall originally built in 1892, the dorm of Clearwater, and Gunaikes Hall and Andres Hall — two buildings built around the same time period — would have to be demolished, in addition to a considerable amount of work to make the tunnels on the campus safe and close up the campus power plant.
Even at Kelly Hall, one of the Greek revival columns showed compromised integrity — meaning the column would have to be replaced.
“Every day, these buildings are becoming more vulnerable to the water that’s coming in,” said Erickson. “Really, the building that’s in the best condition is Pillsbury Hall.”
As ATS&R conducted their evaluation, Erickson said, they also tried to judge which buildings would be most conducive to the needs of the Owatonna school district and they tried to keep in mind which buildings had the most historical value. Old Main, Erickson said, was easily the most iconic, dating back to 1889.
The district’s plans would honor the history of the campus, he said, designating the headmaster’s house as a historical area, which would foster community visits and student field trips.
Anderson said though Pillsbury was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, only the campus was listed and not the specific buildings, resulting in less stringent requirements for reusing the space and ultimately meaning the buildings could be demolished.
Under the proposal, Old Main would serve as a district service center, Pillsbury Hall would house all-day everyday kindergarten classes, Kelly Hall would serve as a professional development and learning center and Jefts Hall would serve as a technological center that would be used primarily by OHS students.
“The entrance that’s coming in off Old Main right now would be expanded,” said Erickson, for busing.
The rest of the campus would serve as green space, which could be used as physical education or playground areas by Washington Elementary students, with a portion of it holding the long-term potential to host a large athletic complex for OHS. The result would give the high school room to expand on its current property. “From an architect’s perspective, I think the functions fit very well with some of the existing buildings,” said Erickson. “Yes, there’s some work that needs to be done.”
All told, the project would take six to eight months of preparation and drafting, with bids ideally coming in at the eight month mark, and construction taking a process of 13 months.
“We’re looking at a potential occupancy of fall 2012, for really getting programs going,” said Erickson.
That’s if all goes as planned, but in order to even make the purchase, the Owatonna district is looking for voters to not only approve a building bond, but to also approve additional operating funds to support all-day everyday kindergarten. If the board votes to put the question to the voters in the general election, voters will have to vote yes thrice.
Many school board members, with the exception of those on the facilities committee, heard the information for the first time on Monday night. A board forum followed the presentation, in which board members said they were excited and uncertain at the same time.
“It’s going to take some time to digest,” said Bill Bernard, the board member who was asked to comment on the presentation first. “This probably isn’t the least costly way for us to expand.”
District officials said they did not want to purchase the facility without adding an all-day everyday kindergarten program to the district. They worried that if they asked the voters to pay taxes toward a building purchase, voters might be less favorable to paying taxes on operating levies in the future.
“We need our levy,” said board member Carol Winter. She said without operating funds, the limits to what programs the campus could hold would be too many. “I don’t want to own property that we can’t use. I think if we’re going to pursue it, we should do it to the extent that we can use the facilities.”
“We did go to the public and ask for a very different plan and we got a resounding no,” said board member Teri Wallace. “Those needs haven’t gone away.”
Wallace said the school district was falling behind others in the state, by not offering all-day everyday kindergarten to all students, and that the elementary schools were busting at the seams with high enrollment. She said in the future, those needs will only increase. “This gives us a prime location between an elementary and a high school,” she said.
Board member Samona Grubish said she wanted to ensure that the campus would serve as a multi-use facility. “The historical aspect of being able to retain Pillsbury, that’s very exciting,” she added.
With a lot of feedback already offered by the board, when the chance to speak came to Vilnis “Willie” Giga, he took a different angle, telling the audience to make education a priority.
“There’s no question of what the attitude of the community is toward public spending,” said Giga. He said despite the district’s best efforts to be innovative and resourceful, cutbacks were inevitably in the future. “I have some difficulty in believing that public education is another government entity that is in need of down-sizing.” He said instead local residents should feel a moral obligation to keep education at its best.
“Facilities do make a difference,” said Giga. “Whether or not this is the route we should go, my mind has not made that decision.”
McCann took time to ask for clarification, learning that the state does not fully reimburse the district for students in all-day everyday kindergarten. “The school districts really become responsible for funding the pupil unit (in all-day every-day kindergarten,)” said Sager.
“We do have a very unique opportunity, but again, want to make sure that the community is behind us 100 percent,” McCann said. “The community has to be willing to step up to the plate.”
School board chair Corey Mensink said from a financial perspective, this is an opportunistic time. “I don’t think there’s a better dollar spent than on kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs,” he said. He also put in a plug for preserving the Pillsbury campus. “This community has a real history of preserving historical locations... There is some urgency around making that happen.”
Information Gained from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=119775
Editorial
The Debate on the Purchase of Pillsbury
I have two solid sources that strongly disagree on the debacle that has been Pillsbury's reluctance to sell their campus and pay off their debts. It is because I believe both sources have a corner on THE FACTS that I see the lack of Pillsbury's proactive measures to sell the campus as a disaster. First, I have a solid anonymous source from the Pillsbury board, a man that does not use his family's background to get a position on the board after little experience. Instead this man has a medium level of experience in the ministry and in ministry administration. This man knows what he is talking about when it comes to Pillsbury and the sale of its campus.
On the other hand, I have an anonymous source from Crossroads Bible College, an institution that has a history of 90 years. According to my source, Crossroads has repeatedly made bids to buy Pillsbury and they have been turned down each time. This source is a late 2000's graduate from Crossroads who has been given sensitive information from people high up in the business department at Crossroads. He is also a former student of Pillsbury who had been given sensitive information from the school while there. He had to leave PBBC when it closed in December, then he finished at Crossroads.
My source for Pillsbury has told me that Pillsbury has debts way above $1 Million and that the sale of the campus must exceed their debt or Pillsbury would be in legal trouble with their creditors. However my Crossroads source says that Pillsbury's debt was less than seven digits and that the school did not have to close in 2008. My Pillsbury source strongly disagrees stating the PBBC should have closed in the mid 2000's.
My Crossroads claims that Crossroads has made several offers to buy PBBC including an offer well above $2 Million. He says that Pillsbury has declined these offers looking for more money. However my Pillsbury board source says that Crossroads made offers with no intentions of follwing through with the purchase. My Crossroads source replies that the school planned to take a multi-million dollar loan on a 12 million campus as collateral.
Who is right? My Pillsbury source or my Crossroads source? The answer is "YES". Both men have important facts and information but they do not know the whole story. I have a proposal to slave this debate. These two source know who they are but not who the other source is, currently. I propose that these sources have a meal with me and any other Lost Lake Tribune editors that want to come.
I ask my two sources to email the Lost Lake Tribune at lostlaketribune@twincities.mn.
If you would like to meet these sources, please email the LLT at lostlaketribune@twincities.mn.
If you have questions or comments on this subject send your correspondence to lostlaketribune@twincities.mn.
Posted: Monday, August 16, 2010
OWATONNA — Less than a week before the state-mandated deadline for declaring a ballot issue, the Owatonna school district has asked the public to consider purchasing the Pillsbury campus.
Formerly Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, the campus that has functioned as an educational institution in Owatonna since 1877 closed its doors in December 2008 after declining enrollment stunted the institution’s funds.
Though a few organizations have considered making an offer, the campus has remained vacant since.
Superintendent Tom Tapper said it was not very long after the campus closed that people began to call him, suggesting the campus be acquired by the Owatonna school district. After being approached by several community members, including alumni of Owatonna High School, Tapper scheduled meetings in May with the district’s architectural firm, ATS&R, in order to conduct a review of the buildings on the Pillsbury campus. “The discussion was really two-fold,” said Tapper on Monday.
He said the first question for the district was what condition the buildings were in and the second question surrounded the possible uses of the grounds for the Owatonna school district.
During a public forum held Monday night at Owatonna Junior High School, a full crowd of concerned citizens joined the school board to hear the results. Tapper made a presentation, along with representatives of ATS&R and Owatonna Director of Finance and Operations Tom Sager, on what it would take to acquire and use the Pillsbury campus.
Tapper said it is not without recognizing the costs and it is not without recognizing the economic climate that the board is considering this decision. In a column printed in today’s paper, he acknowledged that the state of the economy may amount to low interest rates, competitive bidding and the potential to create jobs in Owatonna. Tapper told his audience Monday that he had not yet made a recommendation to the board, and that his greatest concern was that asking for a building bond may cause the voters not to renew an operating levy currently in existence for Owatonna schools. “Any concern that I have is that we would jeopardize that levy,” said Tapper.
What the school board has been asked to consider is a “three-ballot question.” If the school board votes on Friday to put a question on the ballot, it will ask the voters not only to continue funding operations as they have been, but to also provide additional funding for all-day every-day kindergarten and to provide funding for a building bond.
On the ballot, the first question would ask voters to let the school district revoke the current operating levy and in its place instate an operating levy of the same amount for five years. Though this would pose no additional taxes for Owatonna residents, the current operating levy expires in three years.
The second question on the ballot would ask voters to support an additional referendum for all-day every-day kindergarten, a program that Tapper said would be a possibility if the district had additional space.
The third question, which would be dependent on the passage of the second question, would ask voters to support a building bond for the purchase the Pillsbury campus.
Sager gave the public the bottom line at Monday’s meeting. He said in order to provide operations and maintenance in the Pillsbury campus buildings, the district would need $370,000. In order to provide staffing for all-day every-day kindergarten, the district would need twice the resources it has now — $580,000. In order to provide supplies and materials, the district would also need twice what it has now — $26,700. The total cost of maintaining the buildings on the campus and providing all-day every-day kindergarten would be $976,700.
Sager said approving the second ballot question would cover that amount of $976,700. For a homeowner in Owatonna whose home cost $150,000, that would amount to $72.69 annually per home.
Representatives from ATS&R said the purchase, renovation and maintenance of the Pillsbury campus would cost $30 million, a figure which includes $20.5 million for the purchase and repairs, and $9.5 million for reconstruction and reconfiguration as a K-12 educational facility.
Sager said the district was considering paying off the bond over about 12.2 years, with $14.57 million in interest — an option which would cost a homeowner whose house cost $150,000 a sum of $89.06 annually.
The total additional cost on top of the current operating levy, Sager said, would be $161.75 annually per homeowner, amounting to $13.48 per month.
Before the purchase can be made, however, the issue must go to a public vote, and before that can happen, members of the Owatonna school board must approve the question for the ballot in the general election.
The decision to move forward will be made at a special board meeting at 7:30 a.m. Friday. There will be an opportunity for public comment at the start of the meeting.
Information Gained from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=119743
Pillsbury proposal not open and shut
OWATONNA — Until December 2008, the buildings on the Pillsbury campus were bustling, with students shuffling through the hallways to get to class, students hurrying home to the dormitories to study and students popping into the gym for physical training. About 20 months later, the campus is nearly falling apart.
Not only is the face brick on the exterior of the buildings in decay, but water infiltration is a problem in nearly every basement, and the power plant on the campus still has boilers that are more than 100 years old.
These and other problems were presented to the public on Aug 16th as the Owatonna school board held a forum at Owatonna Junior High School to ask voters if they would support a purchase of the Pillsbury campus by the Owatonna school district. Before the public was given an opportunity to comment, they heard presentations from Superintendent Tom Tapper, Director of Operations and Finance Tom Sager and two representatives from ATS&R, the district’s architectural firm.
Paul Erickson, president of ATS&R, and Eric Anderson, who worked on a team that conducted an assessment of the buildings, depicted an aerial view of the campus on a projector in order to share their findings with the public.
The ATS&R team conducted a walk-through of each building on the Pillsbury campus, looking at both internal and external structures and evaluating the mechanical, electrical, structural and civil engineering of the facilities. “We also looked at the buildings and how they meet code,” said Erickson.
Erickson said what the architectural firm found was that the buildings, in part because of their age, needed a lot of work — a sum including $20.5 million for the purchase, repair and removal of some buildings and $9.5 million in reconstruction and reconfiguration as a K-12 learning center.
“From the street, it looks great. It’s a beautiful site,” said Erickson. “Then you walk up to the buildings and you do begin to see that there are some conditions that need to be addressed.”
He said due to the water that in some places seeped all the way through the wall, mold had developed in many basement rooms and already the signs of abandon were starting to show. ATS&R architects were suspicious of lead possibly being contained in the walls, asbestos being found and the large amounts of vermiculite that were used — it’s a naturally occurring mineral that can harbor asbestos. “There are some buildings that simply do not fit the program and would be removed,” said Erickson.
The proposal
Under the proposal, the Owatonna school district would purchase the entire Pillsbury campus, which sits adjacent to both Washington Elementary School and Owatonna High School. Many of the buildings, including the men’s and women’s dormitories, would be razed. The buildings that would be preserved would include Old Main, Pillsbury Hall, Kelly Hall, Jefts Hall and the headmaster’s house.
The other buildings, the Drill Hall originally built in 1892, the dorm of Clearwater, and Gunaikes Hall and Andres Hall — two buildings built around the same time period — would have to be demolished, in addition to a considerable amount of work to make the tunnels on the campus safe and close up the campus power plant.
Even at Kelly Hall, one of the Greek revival columns showed compromised integrity — meaning the column would have to be replaced.
“Every day, these buildings are becoming more vulnerable to the water that’s coming in,” said Erickson. “Really, the building that’s in the best condition is Pillsbury Hall.”
As ATS&R conducted their evaluation, Erickson said, they also tried to judge which buildings would be most conducive to the needs of the Owatonna school district and they tried to keep in mind which buildings had the most historical value. Old Main, Erickson said, was easily the most iconic, dating back to 1889.
The district’s plans would honor the history of the campus, he said, designating the headmaster’s house as a historical area, which would foster community visits and student field trips.
Anderson said though Pillsbury was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, only the campus was listed and not the specific buildings, resulting in less stringent requirements for reusing the space and ultimately meaning the buildings could be demolished.
Under the proposal, Old Main would serve as a district service center, Pillsbury Hall would house all-day everyday kindergarten classes, Kelly Hall would serve as a professional development and learning center and Jefts Hall would serve as a technological center that would be used primarily by OHS students.
“The entrance that’s coming in off Old Main right now would be expanded,” said Erickson, for busing.
The rest of the campus would serve as green space, which could be used as physical education or playground areas by Washington Elementary students, with a portion of it holding the long-term potential to host a large athletic complex for OHS. The result would give the high school room to expand on its current property. “From an architect’s perspective, I think the functions fit very well with some of the existing buildings,” said Erickson. “Yes, there’s some work that needs to be done.”
All told, the project would take six to eight months of preparation and drafting, with bids ideally coming in at the eight month mark, and construction taking a process of 13 months.
“We’re looking at a potential occupancy of fall 2012, for really getting programs going,” said Erickson.
That’s if all goes as planned, but in order to even make the purchase, the Owatonna district is looking for voters to not only approve a building bond, but to also approve additional operating funds to support all-day everyday kindergarten. If the board votes to put the question to the voters in the general election, voters will have to vote yes thrice.
- The first question would ask voters to let the school district revoke the current operating levy and instead instate an operating levy at the same level for five years.
- The second question would ask voters to support an additional operating referendum to fund all-day everyday kindergarten.
- The third question, which would depend on the passage of the second, would ask voters to support a building bond for the purchase of the Pillsbury campus.
Many school board members, with the exception of those on the facilities committee, heard the information for the first time on Monday night. A board forum followed the presentation, in which board members said they were excited and uncertain at the same time.
“It’s going to take some time to digest,” said Bill Bernard, the board member who was asked to comment on the presentation first. “This probably isn’t the least costly way for us to expand.”
District officials said they did not want to purchase the facility without adding an all-day everyday kindergarten program to the district. They worried that if they asked the voters to pay taxes toward a building purchase, voters might be less favorable to paying taxes on operating levies in the future.
“We need our levy,” said board member Carol Winter. She said without operating funds, the limits to what programs the campus could hold would be too many. “I don’t want to own property that we can’t use. I think if we’re going to pursue it, we should do it to the extent that we can use the facilities.”
“We did go to the public and ask for a very different plan and we got a resounding no,” said board member Teri Wallace. “Those needs haven’t gone away.”
Wallace said the school district was falling behind others in the state, by not offering all-day everyday kindergarten to all students, and that the elementary schools were busting at the seams with high enrollment. She said in the future, those needs will only increase. “This gives us a prime location between an elementary and a high school,” she said.
Board member Samona Grubish said she wanted to ensure that the campus would serve as a multi-use facility. “The historical aspect of being able to retain Pillsbury, that’s very exciting,” she added.
With a lot of feedback already offered by the board, when the chance to speak came to Vilnis “Willie” Giga, he took a different angle, telling the audience to make education a priority.
“There’s no question of what the attitude of the community is toward public spending,” said Giga. He said despite the district’s best efforts to be innovative and resourceful, cutbacks were inevitably in the future. “I have some difficulty in believing that public education is another government entity that is in need of down-sizing.” He said instead local residents should feel a moral obligation to keep education at its best.
“Facilities do make a difference,” said Giga. “Whether or not this is the route we should go, my mind has not made that decision.”
McCann took time to ask for clarification, learning that the state does not fully reimburse the district for students in all-day everyday kindergarten. “The school districts really become responsible for funding the pupil unit (in all-day every-day kindergarten,)” said Sager.
“We do have a very unique opportunity, but again, want to make sure that the community is behind us 100 percent,” McCann said. “The community has to be willing to step up to the plate.”
School board chair Corey Mensink said from a financial perspective, this is an opportunistic time. “I don’t think there’s a better dollar spent than on kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs,” he said. He also put in a plug for preserving the Pillsbury campus. “This community has a real history of preserving historical locations... There is some urgency around making that happen.”
Information Gained from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=119775
Editorial
The Debate on the Purchase of Pillsbury
I have two solid sources that strongly disagree on the debacle that has been Pillsbury's reluctance to sell their campus and pay off their debts. It is because I believe both sources have a corner on THE FACTS that I see the lack of Pillsbury's proactive measures to sell the campus as a disaster. First, I have a solid anonymous source from the Pillsbury board, a man that does not use his family's background to get a position on the board after little experience. Instead this man has a medium level of experience in the ministry and in ministry administration. This man knows what he is talking about when it comes to Pillsbury and the sale of its campus.
On the other hand, I have an anonymous source from Crossroads Bible College, an institution that has a history of 90 years. According to my source, Crossroads has repeatedly made bids to buy Pillsbury and they have been turned down each time. This source is a late 2000's graduate from Crossroads who has been given sensitive information from people high up in the business department at Crossroads. He is also a former student of Pillsbury who had been given sensitive information from the school while there. He had to leave PBBC when it closed in December, then he finished at Crossroads.
My source for Pillsbury has told me that Pillsbury has debts way above $1 Million and that the sale of the campus must exceed their debt or Pillsbury would be in legal trouble with their creditors. However my Crossroads source says that Pillsbury's debt was less than seven digits and that the school did not have to close in 2008. My Pillsbury source strongly disagrees stating the PBBC should have closed in the mid 2000's.
My Crossroads claims that Crossroads has made several offers to buy PBBC including an offer well above $2 Million. He says that Pillsbury has declined these offers looking for more money. However my Pillsbury board source says that Crossroads made offers with no intentions of follwing through with the purchase. My Crossroads source replies that the school planned to take a multi-million dollar loan on a 12 million campus as collateral.
Who is right? My Pillsbury source or my Crossroads source? The answer is "YES". Both men have important facts and information but they do not know the whole story. I have a proposal to slave this debate. These two source know who they are but not who the other source is, currently. I propose that these sources have a meal with me and any other Lost Lake Tribune editors that want to come.
I ask my two sources to email the Lost Lake Tribune at lostlaketribune@twincities.mn.
If you would like to meet these sources, please email the LLT at lostlaketribune@twincities.mn.
If you have questions or comments on this subject send your correspondence to lostlaketribune@twincities.mn.
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