Tri-County Community Action program's bid to purchase and renovate the old Ashland Elementary School hit a stumbling block at the Jan. 2 Ashland School Board meeting when the board decided that the purchase and sale agreement for the property had expired and would have to be renegotiated. Board members were not convinced that the $300,000 award that the project had received from the state LCHIP program had been fmalized and therefore could be counted among the minimum funding required under the purchase and sales agreement. The long saga of the attempt to save the old Ashland Elementary School, a historic and picturesque Victorian school erected in 1877-78, continues. After two school district meeting votes and long discussions, Tri County Community Action Program and the Ash1and School Board negotiated a purchase and sale agreement so that TCCAP could acquire the building and renovate it to house Headstart and other community service, programs. To close the deal, TCCAP would have to demonstrate by the end of 2006 that the agency had sufficient funds, at least $775,000, to renovate the building. TCCAP did present a list of funding sources exceeding that amount to the school board at its October meeting. A major funding source was a $300,000 grant from the state's Land and Community Heritage Investment Program. Chairman Rick Burgess subsequently contacted the LCHIP director twice and learned from her that, before all the funds can be fmally released for the project, the plans, specifications and contractors must be reviewed and approved by the LCHIP staff and by the state architectural historian. His concern was that, until this final approval was obtained from the state, there was no guaruantee that the award would actually be made to the project. TCCAP staff has been dealingwith another LCHIP staff member, Amy Dixon, Who is the manager responsible for the Ashland school project. At this month's meeting, Miriam Brown of TCCAP, who is also an Ashland school board member, presented a letter from Dixon, stating that LCHIP was satisfied with the documents already presented and understood that the plans, specifications and contractor list would be developed after the transfer of the property. Brown explained that TCCAP wanted site control before bringing in designers and contractors to fmalize the plans for the building renovation. She evidently felt that the letter from Dixon would satisfy the school board that the LCHIP funding was assured. However, most of the board members were still concerned that the state review process had not been completed yet. At Burgess's suggestion, the board agreed to send a letter to TCCAP stating that the purchase and sale agreement had expired. Expecting that TCCAP would want to negotiate a new agreement, Burgess appointed himself and board member Kevin Stack as the committee to negotiate that agreement on beha1f of the school board.