Directors nix proposed sale of former Jeannette school site, seek development of property

A tentative plan to sell long-vacant property in Jeannette to the Westmoreland County Housing Authority has been nixed.

Jeannette City School District directors this month voted against the sale that tentatively called for the housing authority to pay $28,000 for the land.

Superintendent Matt Jones said the property remains for sale.

“The board has a desire to sell to an entity that will create some tax revenue for the city and the district,” he said.

Directors Robert Kristoff, Chris Belville, Rachel Ramsey, Marcie Werner, Timothy Mortimore and Timothy Carney voted against the sale this month. Directors in May authorized the superintendent and solicitor to move ahead with the process of selling the land to the housing authority.

District officials have been trying for years to sell the property next to the First Presbyterian Church of Jeannette and at the intersection of Cuyler and Chambers avenues and South Fourth Street. It is listed for $40,000 through Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

Housing authority director Mike Washowich said the property was going to be used to create additional parking for nearby Jeannette Manor residents and caregivers. Authority officials also were planning to turn part of it into a community area that could be used for a farmer’s market.

“With that vacant ground, we thought that was a great opportunity not only for our parking needs, but some usable space for Jeannette City residents,” he said.

The housing authority remains in the market for property to alleviate parking issues at the manor, he said.

The district property consists of four contiguous parcels totaling about 1 acre.

The land previously was school site. Classes there started in the 1920s. It was used by high schoolers until a new building was constructed in 1959. The South Fourth Street school switched to middle school classes until the early 1990s when students were moved to the current McKee building on Lowry Avenue, according to a book compiled for Jeannette’s 125th anniversary.

In 2005, school directors rejected a $5 bid from a Pittsburgh company to purchase the building and demolished it later that year, according to the book and Tribune-Review archives.