Council approves Claflin School project

Columbus Council unanimously approved leasing the historic Claflin School complex to a group of Columbus residents who are determined to restore the site of the first public school for African-American children in Columbus.

The Friends of Historic Claflin, a nonprofit established recently to raise money and carry out the planned three-and-a-half-year, $8-$10 million project.

Sam Nelson, president of FHC, said the unanimous vote was a sign of racial progress.

“We’ve got people all over the country trying to tear us apart along racial lines,” said Nelson, who is white. “This is going to be a landmark. It’s going to be great for the city and great for the city’s reputation for racial unity.”

Nelson said raising the money will be a “tremendous challenge.”

“But we’ll do it,” Nelson said. “And the reason we’ll do it is because this is Columbus, Georgia, and we’ve got some of the greatest people in the world here.”

Under the agreement, the city will enter into a multi-phased, multi-year contract with FHC. It calls for FHC to maintain the property and its landscaping and to carry an acceptable level of insurance, with the city named as being insured, too.The city will lease the property to FHC for $1 a year and if the terms are met, the property would be deeded over to FHC, under the terms of its deed restrictions.

The Rev. Richard Jessie, executive director of FHC, said he already has heard from social service and educational entities interested in being tenants in the restored facility.

The primary reason the city had trouble finding a group interested in the property is because of the deed restrictions it is under. When the Freedmen’s Bureau, which built the school shortly after the Civil War, deeded the property to the city of Columbus public schools in the late 1800s, it was under the stipulation that it always be used for educational purposes.

The property was subsequently deeded over to the Muscogee County School System, and the deed stipulations remained in place, as they do today. The buildings fell into disuse and disrepair and have been slowly decaying for years. The school district declared it surplus property in 2013.

The school district then deeded the property back to the city, which had no use for it considering its restrictions, so it was going to deed it back to the federal government. Then the people who have become the Friends of Historic Claflin stepped in and asked for a chance to save the site for historic and educational purposes.

FHC’s proposal calls for the restoration to be completed for a grand opening in September of 2018.

In other action, councilors voted 8-1 to deny the administration’s plan to three-lane Martin Luther King Boulevard and to stick with the present four lanes on the west end and five lanes on the east end.

Councilor Pops Barnes was the lone vote against the motion to deny. Councilor Tom Buck abstained. So when the road is resurfaced this year, it will be striped as it is now.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson was clearly disappointed by the vote and called it a “tragic” missed opportunity.

“This is a tragic loss of an opportunity for community connectivity and re-development,” Tomlinson said. “No matter what spin one tries to place on it, we just can't keep throwing these opportunities away.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 6:58 PM with the headline "Council approves Claflin School project."