Published on April 15th, 2023 – Updated May 19, 2024

By Shayla Gaulding shayla@emporia.com

The Chase County Old School Development District was the recipient of $1 million in state funding last week, bringing to fruition a years-long effort to provide the people of Chase County with more housing options, while also preserving local history.

CCOSDD has been in the process of renovating former classrooms within the limestone building of the property into affordable housing for Chase County residents. The housing will provide 10 one or two-bedroom apartments, with access to the many facilities at the Old School. In deference to the historic school building, each apartment will be unique and keep the layout and foundations of the original classrooms.

The apartments will be owned and operated by Manhattan-based Frontier Development Group and will each be equipped with a washer and dryer, dishwasher, one or two separate bedrooms and an open kitchen and living room space.

The state funding, which includes $650,000 in Moderate Income Housing funds and $350,000 in Kansas Housing Investor Tax Credits, is a long-awaited triumph for the group.

“It was joyous,” CCOSDD president Lee Anne Coester said. “When I got the email and called people I heard lots of ‘Woohoo!’ and things like that. We are very excited.”

Coester said CCOSDD’s original mission statement was “Saving History While Creating Opportunities,” a mission that she said the group has been working to accomplish for around two years. The group took extra care in the early stages of the project, searching for the right fit in a property management company, eventually settling on Frontier Development Group.

“We made a list within our board of what we felt was important,” she said. “One was someone who would appreciate and maintain the historical integrity of the building. That was number one on our list. Number two on our list was that they would work with us to have the community center and we saw that as a benefit to people who would move into the apartment. … We were so lucky that we came upon Frontier Development. Tyler Holloman out of Alma, Kansas, when he sat down to interview with us, it was like everything we wanted was already his mode of work.”

Holloman, owner of Frontier Property Management, said he hopes to submit the final construction documents next week. Following the return of those documents and approval from the State Historic Preservation Office, Holloman said the group should be able to start construction around late May.

While construction likely won’t wrap up until summer 2024, Holloman said prospective renters are welcome to reach out at 785-370-0162 to be placed on a waitlist.

“We’re really excited to be working in the community. We’ve had the opportunity to talk with several local employers and the local city and county staff and everyone seems really excited about the project. We’re eager to get going,” Holloman said. “We think it’s going to be a really good fit for the community and a great fit for the school.”

Coester said housing is a must for the future development of Chase County and other rural communities that struggle to grow economically due to a lack of housing.

“We didn’t realize the depth of that need until we started researching more, talking to business owners, employers, community leaders,” Coester said. “… Those personal conversations that I had with our superintendent of schools who said that she couldn’t hire teachers that she needed because there is no housing. Our county director of the jail facility said he could hire employees because there was no housing for them. LMI, which is our main industrial hirer here, they couldn’t hire employees because of the no housing for his employees.”

Holloman and the CCOSDD also spoke with city council members and received letters of support from community stakeholders, which Coester said made all the difference in receiving the funding.

“We do want to thank all of the people who provided support letters,” she said. “Those were so well written. That really had an impact on us receiving the grant was the fact that the community was so behind the project. That was definitely a big deal. Cottonwood Falls city council, we had to have official support for it and they have been wonderful and doing everything they could to make this work.”

The community will have a chance to view the limestone building before the renovation work begins at the CCOSDD Car Show and Ice Cream Social, set for May 13 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Source: https://www.emporiagazette.com/cln/article_8384d120-dae6-11ed-b96e-bf1d0d5a0ec8.html