Leakey ISD Purchases Kermit Pannell Property Adjacent to Eagle Stadium
by Leakey ISD Webmaster
January 31, 2010
2/1/2010-News Release-Leakey Independent School District-Fred R. McNiel, Superintendent
Leakey ISD Purchases Kermit Pannell Property Adjacent to Eagle Stadium
On Thursday, January 14th, a real estate closing was held in the office of Commerce Title in Uvalde that officially conveyed a 1.878 acre tract of land from John Kermit Pannell to Leakey Independent School District. The school district paid $75,000 for the property. While the timing of the purchase was perhaps not ideal due to the decreased fund balance reported by the auditors, the Leakey ISD School Board unanimously agreed that the district could not afford to let the opportunity to secure this property slip through its fingers! Mr. Pannell purchased this tract of land in 1961 and lived on this property for nearly 50 years before deciding to move to Louisiana to live with his son, Rick Pannell.
The real estate transaction had its beginning early in November, 2009. Lonnie Davenport and Lem Lewis, proprietors of Land and Ranch Realty, approached the Leakey ISD superintendent and asked if the school would be interested in purchasing the property as it had been recently listed for sale with their real estate company. They further stated that Mr. Pannell wanted the school to have the first opportunity to purchase the property. The superintendent said he would consult with the School Board at the next regular meeting to see if the Board wanted to pursue this purchase.
At the November 17th regular monthly Board meeting, just a week before the Thanksgiving holidays, the Board, in executive session, considered an agenda item titled: Consider for Approval Purchase of Property. The Superintendent advised the Board that the Pannell property was for sale and the asking price was $95,000. The Board authorized the superintendent to negotiate on behalf of the Board and to make a counter offer of $60,000 on the property. After several offers and counter-offers and after a special Board meeting on November 24th, the buyer and seller agreed on the final purchase price of $75,000.00!
At the December regular School Board meeting, the School Board acted on an agenda item titled: Consider for Approval Purchase of Pannell Property. Leakey ISD Trustee, Shawn Gray made a motion to approve the purchase of the Pannell property and Shane Hohman seconded this motion and the motion passed unanimously! The sales contract was then signed by the superintendent and the sales contract stipulated that closing had to be held no later than the fifteenth of January.
At the Board meeting on December 14th the School Board also approved an agenda item borrowing the money needed to purchase the property from Government Capital Corporation. The borrowed money will be repaid in five years with an annual payment of approximately $18,000. The interest charged on the loan is 5.659%. The first payment will be due in November, 2010. Dub Suttle made the motion to approve this financing plan and this motion was seconded by Charlie Reagor. This motion also passed unanimously! Since the fund balance was precariously low due to the auditors error, the Board wanted to borrow the funds needed for the purchase instead of using funds from the fund balance as had been done when the Thurman and Bonner properties were purchased three and four years ago!
With three realtors on the School Board and one Board member owning a title company, all Trustees agreed that the property was well worth what the school paid for it. Previous Leakey ISD Board members, Billy Joe Brice and Sandy Lynam, currently employees of First State Bank of Uvalde-Frio Canyon Branch-Leakey, commented to the superintendent that the school had tried to purchase this property years ago when they served on the School Board! The purchase of this property will give the district the land needed to construct a regulation running track around the football field and a field house. Also in the future it could provide much needed parking for football games.
Bengi Bushong, a registered surveyor, completed the survey prior to closing and since closing the Leakey ISD maintenance crew has started the process of cleaning up the property, trimming up the cedar trees, and removing the underbrush so that our water boys can retrieve footballs from this area without the fear of getting snake-bit! The property does have a small rock house on the premises but it is not in very good shape and this dwelling will probably be used for storage since there is currently a shortage of storage space on campus. In the photo above maintenance workers, Aby Rubio and Conrad Elmore pause from their work, cutting and burning brush, to pose for a photograph!