District becomes a homeowner

The Port Washington-Saukville School District is the proud owner of a house, although officials have no intention of calling it home.

Instead, the district is interested in the lot it sits on — a residential island sandwiched between Port Washington High School’s two main parking lots — and plans to raze the house to create needed parking at the school.

The School Board on Monday approved spending $110,000 to buy the lot and old house at 428 N. Holden St. The district plans to close on the deal immediately, Director of Business Services Mel Nettesheim said. 

Money for the purchase will come from the district’s fund balance, she said. 

Nettesheim estimated the cost of demolishing the house and creating a parking lot to be between $300,000 and $500,000 but said the district is in no hurry to move ahead with that project. Instead, it will wait until the costs of materials and services stabilizes, she said.

“The market is in flux so much right now that we’re just going to sit on it for awhile,” Nettesheim said. 

The land will also need to be rezoned, although Nettesheim said Port Washington officials have assured the district that will not be a problem.

Last year, a representative of the estate that owns the lot approached the district with an offer that officials saw as a way to address the longtime parking problem at Port High.

The personal representative of the seller listed on offer to purchase is Patrick Poole.

In October, when the board hired a lawyer from the Green Bay office of Davis-Kuelthau to negotiate the deal, Nettesheim called it “a good opportunity for both the seller and buyer.”

The house is the only one on the far southern end of Holden Street — recently renamed Pirate Way — that runs along the east side of the high school.

It also has the distinction of being in one of the busiest areas of the city during the school year, an area traveled by dozens of school buses and hundreds of cars every day.

But while the property is a less-than-ideal site for a home, it has potential as a parking lot. Port High has three parking lots on campus and uses the municipal lot to the south of the school for overflow parking. Students also park on nearby streets, which over the years has generated complaints from residents in these areas, although it’s unclear if students park on streets because there isn’t room in high school lots or to avoid paying for parking there.

The new lot would provide additional parking for students, as well as for school visitors, whose vehicles typically spill onto city streets when Port High hosts large events such as concerts, graduation ceremonies and athletic tournaments.