City, school differ on Havre HIgh School parking lot issue

Editor’s note: After today’s edition was printed, Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said this article implies that he agrees that the Havre Public Schools owns and is responsible for the Havre High School parking lot. Carlson said he does not agree with Havre Mayor Tim Solomon with that assessment. This version includes his saying state information shows the city owns the parking lot. It also clarifies that Havre Public Schools is working with Havre Sand and Gravel to repair the parking lot.

The city of Havre and Havre Public Schools are both looking into an issue of which entity owns the Havre High School parking lot, and after about a month of research the city has determined the property belongs to the school system.

Carlson said state records show otherwise — the state Cadastral map that details information about and ownership of property shows it belongs to the city.

“I see a real need for that to be determined and I would hope everybody stands by that with me,” Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said. 

The issue was brought to light after Carlson went to the city to discuss some repairs the school district was looking at for the parking lot. Carlson said that since he first became involved in the public school system in Havre he has operated off the idea the parking was under the ownership of the city, as it is stated on the Montana Cadastral map that lists information about rights and ownership of land.

“Every decision we’ve made and our actions have always been from the perspective of that is city property,” he said.

He added that the property has a number of issues depending on who owns it.

“It’s important to make sure we know who’s responsible because there are always liability type issues, but it also comes down to how we operate as a school district,” Carlson said. “If that’s our property then we operate differently, potentially with students and the public.”

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon said that after researching deeper into the issue the city has found it does not have any ownership of the parking lot. Although the Cadastral lists the property under city ownership, digging through city and Hill County Courthouse records and files, no records show the city ever owned the property. The issue occurred because the parking lot was designated to the public, but it does not indicates what public.

The school district doesn’t need to request permission from the city to make any improvements on the property, Solomon said.

He added that the city government told Carlson he doesn’t need any kind of document designating he would not be liable before starting any work on the property because the city has no stake in the property.

“We don’t have anything to begin with as far as liability,” Solomon said. “How can we give up something we don’t have?”

He said that if the school does come across any issues, the city is more than willing to help, but in this case the city has nothing to do with the property.

“We are willing to work with them if we do have something, but our research found that there’s nothing the city has to do with it,” he added.

Carlson said that the school district is working with Havre Sand and Gravel to fix some of the pot holes in the parking lot. He added that the work may not be able to be done until later in the year. It is not ideal, and he would like to be able to make repairs sooner, he said.

He said that, in the future, he would like to make more improvements to the parking lot, such as milling the surface and installing overlay, although the school district does not have the funding currently to make those repairs.

“We are not at an overlay point, that’s a lot of dollars, and we don’t have access to that money,” he said.

He added that the immediate dangers are the potholes.

Just like the bathroom renovation and upgrade just completed this year at the high school, though, Carlson said, on the surface the project may not look like much. But the bathroom was an extensive project, requiring pipes and plumbing being replaced, and the parking lot may be similar, he said.