Clinton News Record, 2013-12-18, Page 13Barnim family rejuvenates former
Colborne Central Public School
Father and daughter
purchased property
in May from school
board
Ryan Goodyear
For QMI Agency
The Colbourne Central Public
School has been sitting lifeless for two
solid years; however, councilor Brian
Barnim and daughter Caresse Barnim
plan to breathe new life back into the
property and into the community.
Brian and Caresse said they had
been interested in the property since
February, when they began speaking
with the Avon Maitland District
School Board (AMDSB) about when
the school might be up for sale.
The school board's answer was sim-
ple - if they chose to go through the
auction process, it could be available
as late as next fall. However, if the
board decided to open the property
up for bidding, they would probably
entertain doing it in late spring.
Luckily for the Barnims, the AMDSB
settled on the bidding process and
after a short time the Barnims were
informed they were the property's
new owners.
The project all began when Caresse
graduated university and wanted to
get into the field of aquaculture,
indoor fish farming to be exact. So,
her father gave her some advice.
"I had said to her - you know I have
a bit of knowledge in the area - so I
suggested that, if you look for rural
school properties, it's a good way to
acquire a piece of land and possibly
the building would have also worked
for the aquaculture," he said. "So
knowing that this school was closed
and others in the area, we looked at
the options and decided that this was
a good option area wise."
Everything went fairly smooth as far
as the bidding process; however, the
family did have to deal with a few hic-
cups along the way.
Shortly after placing their first bid,
they were informed it did not meet
the reserve and another bid had been
placed, but it too had not met the
reserve. As far as they could tell, the
family was only bidding against one
other prospective buyer.
Shortly after both prospects were
informed the bidding would be open
again, but only for the two interested
parties.
The Barnims increased their bid
and sent it off only to be notified once
again neither bid had made the
reserve.
On May 14, the decision went to the board
for discussion and by 10 p.m. that night, the
father -daughter team was informed they
were the new owners.
Big plans have been made for the school
building itself. Weddings, buck and does and
a few small gatherings have already been
booked.
Plans for acquiring a liquor license for the
auditorium, courtyard and a meeting room
are in the works, and Brian said he already
has a few businesses interested.
"Legal Services Cooperative have a few
offices here and we are looking at renting out
some office space," he explained. "We have
incredibly good high-speed wireless Internet
here, so we are just looking for ideas from
people today and that's why we opened it up
to the public."
The property will continue to grow as
Caresse plans to erect a structure in the
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 • News Record 13
spring, along the east border going north, for
raising large mouth bass and perch in an
indoor recirculation system similar to that of
a chicken barn.
She already has a contract for 330,000
pounds of fish in her first year.
The Barnims said if things work out as
planned, the development could greatly ben-
efit the community.
Not only for space and employment but
also with a little something Brian has been
thinking about for a while.
"We even want to do a drive-in here," he
said. "You put the big blow up screen on top
of the building here and we will do it in con-
junction with a service club so they would
run the gate and the concession and share in
the profit."
"We want to just try and bring back what
we used to do back to the community."
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