Encore sale delayed by lack of quorum

Published 6:26 am Tuesday, June 10, 2008

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Completing the transfer of Lincoln Community Center to Encore Performing Arts will have to wait a bit longer.
A resolution of intent to sell the former Lincoln School at 407 E. Division St. for one dollar was adopted by Dowagiac City Council May 12 and remained "on the table" for the requisite 21-day period.
But the council lacked a quorum Monday night, with Mayor Donald Lyons, Mayor Pro-Tem Wayne Comstock, Leon Laylin and Darron Murray present and Dr. Charles Burling, Lori Hunt and Bob Schuur absent.
City Clerk Jim Snow explained that the council can meet as a committee of the whole to complete its agenda with the three voting members present, Comstock, Laylin and Murray.
"Since it is not a quorum," Snow advised Mayor Lyons, "the action of these three will have to come back at the next meeting (July 14) and be ratified rather than approved," according to Robert's Rules of Order.
City Attorney Mark Westrate agreed with Snow's interpretation.
Budget cuts closed Lincoln in 1982, but it returned as a Young 5's-fourth grade elementary in the fall of 1988.
On Dec. 8, 2003, the $1 transfer of Lincoln School from Dowagiac Union Schools to the city for continued use as a community center precipitated a joint meeting at City Hall of the school board and City Council.
Encore, a 503(c)(3) non-profit guided by a 12-member board, plans to make Lincoln an arts clearinghouse, incorporating a variety of performing arts-based youth activities to the current dance company, including music lessons and other cultural activities.
Current tenants, including Cass County Council on Aging and a boxing program, will remain.
The only action item on the council agenda besides Encore was paying bills of $115,230.55 and payroll of $124,491.06 for a total expenditure of $239,721.61.
There weren't even any comments from the audience.