View of the south entrance to the state-owned Iowa Juvenile Home facility in Toledo. -- News Chronicle File Photo

As voters are in the midst of casting their ballots for the South Tama County special school election today, the city of Toledo has cleared a major hurdle in funding for their portion of the proposed Iowa Juvenile Home (IJH) property transfer..

Early Tuesday morning the city received word from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) that their grant application for state funding for demolition and remediation work at the IJH facility had been approved.

The proposed plan, which is contingent upon approval from voters in today’s school election, would utilize the city of Toledo as a pass-through entity to facilitate the demolition of the cottage buildings around the IJH campus and the remediation of any existing asbestos issues within the main school building that is being proposed for renovation as part of South Tama County’s $26.8 million Middle School Facility Project.

Should the project move forward, the city of Toledo would initially take ownership of the facility from the state and utilize the state grant funding to complete the necessary demolition and remediation work.

Once that work is complete the property would transfer to the South Tama County school district for their work to begin in renovating and constructing the new middle school.

According to an award letter sent to the city Tuesday morning from IEDA Director Deborah Durham, the state funding going toward the demolition and remediation for the school project will total $1.5 million.

The funds are being made available through the IEDA’s Vacant State Building Demolition and Rehabilitation Fund that was established by the State Legislature in 2019 to address a growing number of vacant, state-owned facilities that have been difficult to sell and repurpose.

According to an Iowa Department of Administrative Services report from 2021, the state currently has a total of 77 vacant state facilities spread out across nine different state departments.

According to the IEDA award letter, the city would receive $750,000 through the Vacant State Building Demolition Fund and another $750,000 through the Vacant State Building Rehabilitation Fund.

The funds would be reimbursed to the city of Toledo upon completion of the various projects identified as necessary for the school’s development to begin.

A contract between the state and the city of Toledo is forthcoming and will spell out the details of the grant reimbursement funding.

Should the project move forward, a tentative timeline would begin immediately with an asbestos study being completed for the IJH buildings set for demolition.

Asbestos remediation would then occur, followed by the bidding process for demolition and the demolition work itself, all which could happen sometime within 2022.