County Balks Over School Deed

Published 12:00 am Monday, August 13, 2012

By Beth Cassidy
Enterprise Record

Davie Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Darrin Hartness was perplexed when he received no reply to a letter he sent to Beth Dirks, county manager, five months ago.
In the letter, he said the school system wanted to exercise its option to purchase Cornatzer Elementary and included the customary $10 for the title to be transferred.
At the July school board meeting, he told the board he would continue to follow up on what should have been a “simple transaction.”
He also said the county put the school on its insurance policy earlier this year, which confused him because the school was already insured by the school system.
Jim Stockert, county finance officer, confirmed the debt for the school was paid Sept. 8, 2008 and said the system had one year to exercise its option to have the title transferred. No one noticed that option hadn’t been exercised until earlier this year, when work was being done on a sewer system. Stockert realized the county still owned the school. That is why it was put on the county’s insurance, he said, at a cost of about $8,000 per year.
“It has double coverage now,” Stockert said …