newsminer.com

Usibelli Coal Mine has agreed to purchase the Denali Pre-School and Learning Center and lease it for a nominal fee to a new nonprofit group that is preparing to take over the longtime child care facility.

The surprise agreement was reached late Friday night after a special Borough Assembly meeting in which the Assembly announced that negotiations with owner Shelly Merrell were at a standstill.

The Merrells and a representative of Usibelli Coal Mine met privately and agreed on a selling price, which will remain confidential.

“No, she didn’t get $100,000 or $200,000, but she got a fair amount,” said Rick Hundrup, vice president of finance for Usibelli. “It recognizes her investment. It recognizes the value of keeping her around for awhile. It’s more than fair for us and the community,”

The preschool day care will remain open through April, and Merrell will stay on as the administrator and help train the new team that takes over.

Once finalized, the agreement will return the child care facility to the community and end a monthlong controversy that erupted when Merrell apparently broke her contract and tried to sell the building as a private residence for $100,000.

Merrell’s contract reportedly requires her to run the facility as a day care for at least three years or the property reverts to the borough.

When a large segment of the community protested the private sale, the borough filed a lien on the property and the sale fell through. Merrell announced she was closing the borough’s only state licensed day care on March 31.

The Borough Assembly then appointed a committee of three members to negotiate with Merrell in an attempt to reimburse her for her equity in the building and the original purchase price of $8,000.

Negotiations went badly.

But in the end, that may have helped in reaching this final agreement.

“We’re not interested in getting into the day care business,” Hundrup said. But he said Usibelli has closely monitored the situation and has always had an interest in playing a role to help facilitate a transition to the new owners.

What changed, he said, was Friday night’s meeting when everyone realized the matter could easily end up in the courts. Lawyers were starting to get involved.

“Mayor Dave Talerico characterized it very well,” he said. “Everybody loses.”

“I think it got so locked up in all the excitement over this contract and what was expected or promised, they lost sight of the value of what was there,” Hundrup said.

The community originally acquired the building with a state grant in 1986. Through the years, nonprofit boards ran the day care and preschool. Two years ago, the board at the time, over community protest, turned it over to Merrell for the cost of the preschool’s outstanding debt: $8,000. She ran it as a for-profit business.

The improvements she made to the property are obvious, Hundrup said, such as painting inside and out, a new fence and a new playground.

“The other thing,” he said, “are the intangibles, that are really hard to place a value on. And that is where the borough was going to have difficulty. You’re not going to see the value of that curriculum, the value of that licensing, of the training of the staff, the list goes on and on. They have an inherent and real value.”

In his talks with Merrell, he was able to recognize that with a reasonable offer, he said. With that common understanding as a framework, they reached an agreement within 30 minutes, he said.

It won’t be final until papers are signed.

Hundrup downplayed his role in this delicate negotiation. The credit, he said, really goes to Mayor Dave Talerico, who worked closely with he and Merrell throughout this ordeal; Merrell, who was very reasonable and accommodating during discussions; and Joe Usibelli, who agreed to buy the building.

Now there is time to explore ways to make this truly successful, Hundrup said.

“This will keep it going, as we transition to a new non-profit, and buy some time to find some sort of different format that will be more longlasting,” Hundrup said. “We’ll have some time to explore those options in not such a time crunch.”

The new nonprofit will take over May 1.