Joe Gray came to the Clarksdale Municipal School District board meeting last Thursday on behalf of the a veteran’s organization, the Rock Climbers, attempting to make a difference, but his plans were delayed.
Gray’s intention was for the Rock Climbers, which help veterans transition to full-time employment so they are able to earn a living, to make an offer to purchase the old Myrtle Hall IV school on Fifth Street.
However, there must a bidding process for anyone to buy the building and Gray said he was unaware of that until shortly before the meeting.
“My ears are red. My stomach’s upset so please bear with me,” said Gray in his opening remarks.
“I’m very, very disappointed over something that’s happened the last 30 days.
“I took it upon myself on behalf of the organization to submit an offer to purchase property contained herein.”
Gray said, 30 days prior to the meeting, he mailed an offer to the CMSD to purchase the building, not make a bid. He said he wished he was informed sooner he had to go through a bidding process.
“It was marked on the envelope,” Gray said. “The envelope has been opened. It’s been tagged in here.
“I’ve found out you cannot sell property. It has to go through a bid list. I found that out today.
“We’ve had over three-and-a-half weeks to explain that to me, to call me or take some type of positive action or even negative action. I came here today expecting to be able to discuss the offer that the Rock Climbers made. It has a check in it to be able to pay it in total. I’m told that you can’t talk about it because it has to be put up for bid. I could have handled this I think had someone contacted me even a couple of days after.”
Gray continued explaining his plans.
“We’re interested in purchasing that school to work with homeless veterans to successfully transition them from unemployment housing, everything, train them to be citizens again,” Gray said.
Gray said the program would benefit 25 to 100 veterans a year and they can improve many houses with painting and installing new roofs at no cost.
“This isn’t a pie in the sky,” Gray said. “I’ve worked on this for a long time. I am a former military officer and I’ve always taken care of men. We need this here in town. I’m just disappointed and heartbroken that this was not received and at least educated me. I see no action. Plus, it’s exposed the offer I that I had for the building.”
Now, Gray said, the competition will be exposed to his bid.
“Actually, it’s not,” replied CMSD board president H. Clay Stillions in an attempt to clarify the situation. “None of us have seen it. The people that are going to make the decision, Joe, have not seen it. We don’t know what the bid is.”
Gray said the envelope he sent with his proposal was opened and marked.
Stillions said mail is opened all the time.
“There’s a process we need to go through,” he said. “We’ll find out what that is and I wasn’t aware you had already made the bid until I heard today you dropped something up here. We’ve got to actually approve putting that building up for a bid. Nobody on this board knows what you bid, nobody. If we wanted to tell somebody else, we couldn’t, and we’re the ones that have to approve the bid.”
Gray said he appreciated the way Stillions has always helped him with different matters.
“I understand now and I appreciate you counseling me and very appropriately and very appropriate guidance,” Gray said. “When I got here today, I was just extremely disappointed that this has not been (taken care of).”
Stillions said he apologized for whatever role he had in causing any disappointment.
“I firmly believe in what you’re trying to do and I hope it works out, but we’ll have to go through the process,” Stillions said.
Gray said he understood, but was heartbroken he was not informed of the process sooner.
Stillions said the board will begin setting up the bid process for Myrtle Hall IV and told every board member how passionate Gray is about helping veterans.
