The St. Joseph County Commissioners had a chance to lay out their vision for the future of Portage Manor, during Saturday’s “Coffee with Your Commissioners” event. The county council last week agreed to let the commissioners issue a request for proposals for the vacant county home and surrounding land.
While no final decisions have been made, Commissioner Carl Baxmeyer said St. Thomas More Academy has so far been the most interested in preserving the building. “I am supportive of what they propose to do, but because we had other people approach us, that caused us to think that we really should take proposals,” Baxmeyer explained.
Baxmeyer said other groups have said they’d do something with the building if they “have to,” which he felt isn’t good enough. “For a nonprofit, we don’t have to take other proposals, but in the interest of transparency, we thought it was important,” he added.
The county is expected to request separate proposals: one for the building and 20 acres of woods, plus another for the site’s former farm.
Commissioner Tony Hazen said he also supported preserving the building and woods, but he opposed the idea of turning the former farm into a county park. "I don’t think we do a great job of keeping our county parks up right now," Hazen explained. "That’s the bottom line. I don’t think we can take another one on."
Still, he said he was open to letting an outside group maintain the site as a nature preserve, at least until the county decides whether to sell it. He said the council and commissioners will weigh proposals for development or preservation, but he didn’t feel the county had to sell in a hurry.
“Who knows, five years from now, somebody might come along and say, ‘Hey, it was [worth] $2 million five years ago. We’ll give you $7 million now.’ Then we can look at it, but right now, we don’t have to look at it. That’s how I feel,” Hazen said.
Commissioner Rafael Morton didn’t endorse a specific plan for the property, but said he wanted to work with the county council and the other commissioners to make a collaborative decision. Still, he felt that the public became more receptive to letting St. Thomas More Academy take over Portage Manor, when it became clear that it wasn’t interested in the farmland.
“I’ve never seen an attitude with any type of public hearing change so quick,” Morton added.
Baxmeyer expects the county to issue a formal request for proposals within the next week or so. Organizations would then have 30 days to respond.
