Paradise settles sale of school site with Province

The Town of Paradise and the Province have come to an agreement on payment for a sale of land that has been on the books since 2018.

In 2018, the Province announced that it would build a new intermediate school in Paradise. That school was constructed on 1.1 hectares of Town-owned land, and the agreement was that the Province would purchase the property from Paradise for $75,000, the appraised value of the land.

Councillor Larry Vaters explained during the October 15 public meeting that the Province and the Town have been working together to resolve payment ever since.

Staff, Vaters said, had learned the Town has a mortgage on the property from the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation, and that mortgage release conditions applied — in other words, the Town was left on the hook for the value of the mortgage for the portion of land sold, valued at $26,260, following the sale of the land.

Subtracting the mortgage release condition from the initial $75,000 sale point, the Town earned $48,750 from the sale.

Vaters said he was pleased to finally see the issue resolved.