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Colona School District buys Gailliaerts Park

The Colona Park District sold Gailliaerts Park to the Colona School District on Monday, March 30, 2015. The park sits on four acres of land on Colona Road in th...

The Colona Park District sold Gailliaerts Park to the Colona School District on Monday, March 30, 2015. The park sits on four acres of land on Colona Road in the city.

The park district was established to help develop plans for a new community center. Back in November of 2014, voters rejected the community center plans at the site. Due to that, the land had to be sold, and the park district was dissolved. Bidding started at $20,000, and the appraised value of the park was $41,000. The Colona School District bought the site for about $45,250.

The sale has sparked mixed reactions from people in the city.

"We don't want the kids to be running the streets, but we don't want to give them a spot to stay," Colona parent Donald Burch said. "A community center would have been the best thing ever."

"I would like to see something good that would either bring people to our area or something that will be useful to the community as a whole," Colona parent Angela Carden said.

The district accepted bids until 11 a.m. Monday. Earlier this month, the city of Colona rejected plans to buy the property. Four local school districts will accept the proceeds from the sale.

Superintendent Kyle Ganson told News 8, the school district envisions a road connecting the land to Colona Grade School. He also says the district envisions a parking lot at the site or soccer fields. Ganson told News 8 he does not plan on tearing down the ball diamond in the short term.

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