The historic J.H. Sampson School building has a new owner after its November closing.
Lin Dawson, a Kinston native, submitted a $22,500 bid for the property in February, and the move was approved by the Lenoir County Board of Education Tuesday.
He was the only bidder and plans to turn the structure into a community haven — something like when he was growing up in East Kinston — through his nonprofit agency JH Sampson Community Life Foundation.
“I am grateful,” Dawson said after the board meeting. “It takes confidence that we can pull this off.”
The plan included four prongs of service: workforce and economic development, social services, educational enhancement and charity. Dawson said only one floor of Sampson School will be usable during the first year but within three years, it will be a fully-functioning community hub.
“We see Sampson as a full, operational community life center,” Dawson said. “It will be run as a nonprofit organization. It was a lifeline for our community.”
He told the board members about how important Sampson was to Kinston when he started attending in 1966.
“We certainly appreciate his interest in this,” said Steve Mazingo, LCS superintendent. “We think his plans will improve the school greatly and also the masses in the neighborhood.”
The next step for Dawson’s team is to begin cleaning, assessing and somehow securing grants for the building.
It suffers poor conditions, from leaks to severe roofing damage, meaning the property’s repair costs are projected much higher than the bidding price.
“Anytime you look at the value of a facility and the value of a property, you have to look at the whole picture,” said Brent Williams, LCS executive director of operations. “You have to look at cost of ownership, condition of the property, the needs of the facility and exactly what it would take — in terms of resources — to bring the facility up to an operational standpoint.
“In this case, that bar is very hard. The needs are very intense.”
Dawson said in an earlier interview with The Free Press it would take $750,000 to bring the property back to life, and it would take a year to raise those funds.
“It seems like Mr. Dawson has a very comprehensive plan for using the property to benefit the community in a number of different entities,” Williams said. “I think it sounds like a very good and beneficial plan for the community.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.