Washington Local Schools approve a million-dollar real-estate purchase

Washington Local Schools will buy Toledo’s former Tamaron Country Club for $1 million for use as sports fields and possibly as the site for a new elementary school.

During a special meeting Monday, the district Board of Education voted unanimously to spend $700,000 to purchase most of the 55.4-acre property at 2162 W. Alexis Rd. from Drewso Ltd.

Excluded from that purchase are the club buildings and a small adjacent parcel previously leased by Drewso to TVCF, LLC, a local catering and wedding-venue business.

The vote Monday also authorized district administrators to enter into an option agreement with Drewso under which the district could buy the remaining Tamaron property for $300,000 within a year after TVCF’s lease expires in 2028, and until then to enter into a shared-use agreement with Drewso for access to the land to start construction and renovation.

The board’s 4-0 vote followed a 30-minute executive-session discussion about the deal.

Construction equipment “will probably start moving in there as soon as we close on this in the next couple of months, and then we'll start leveling [the ground] and getting ready for sports fields,” Kadee Anstadt, Washington Local’s superintendent of schools, said after the meeting. “So, hopefully by next fall — not this fall, but the following fall — we'll be playing sports there.”

The athletic fields are the only short-term plan, but an elementary school could be considered there in the future, the superintendent said.

During a September meeting, school board members said buying the site would enable the district to replace fields at Erme Field, where a new middle school is planned. Toledo City Council on Wednesday gave final approval of a special use permit for that school’s construction.

“It’s beneficial for the students,” Mark Hughes, the board’s vice president, said Monday of the Tamaron purchase. “... And it’s exciting. It’s exciting to see us grow and change for the students to bring them into the 21st century.”

Drewso took over the nearly century-old property and facilities in 2018 from a family wedding-venue business at Tamaron.

The country club there had closed the year before as an active golf course. Vicky and Tony Fuhrman, the wedding-venue business owners, formed TVCF and were allowed to continue operating the country club banquet venue under a 10-year lease.