Montessori School Expands, Now Faces Demolition Building With $220,000 Addition Is On Site Of Proposed Evergreen I-90 Interchange

When Gwen Melcher bought the house sitting in a cozy, wooded corner on Mission, just east of Evergreen Road, she thought she was in heaven.

“When I bought this place, it was a dream come true,” Melcher said, voice full of nostalgia.

She had operated Valley Montessori School in her basement at one time, then in a church. When she bought the house in 1990 and converted it into a school, it was a substantial move up. A chance to expand.

Expand she did. In March, she opened a $220,000 addition to her building, with space for three classrooms and a meeting room.

And she did the expansion project knowing the school will be demolished, maybe as soon as next year, to make way for the planned Evergreen interchange from I-90.

“Basically, I just really needed to make the improvements,” Melcher said, short-term or not.

When she bought the school six years ago, the county told her she would need to give up 15 feet of the property for a future improvement of Evergreen Road. But the big surprise came in May 1993, when Melcher tried to obtain a building permit to expand.

That’s when county officials told her that her school was going to be condemned.

Hanson Industries and Price Development will compensate Melcher for the fair market value of the property. They must pay most of the cost of the Evergreen project because the interchange will serve their respective projects, Sullivan Park Center and the Spokane Valley Mall.

But Melcher needed extra classrooms now. More toddlers were being enrolled at the school, and those students need rooms that aren’t shared by older children, she said.

From 1993 to 1995, Melcher kept in touch with Hanson Industries to find out when it would buy her out. She said she got the same response - soon, but not yet.

“It really gnawed me,” Melcher said.

Her dilemma: The school was too small, but she couldn’t afford to build a whole new one until developers bought her out.

“She’s been kind of kept on a string,” said Leonard Cash, a planning engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

Last year, Melcher decided to expand her existing building anyway. When Melcher went to get a building permit, county staffers couldn’t understand it.

“They really tried to talk me out of it. They said it was a shame it would be wasted,” Melcher said.

But waste might be the wrong word. The project more than doubled the value of Valley Montessori School. That means Hanson and Price will have to pay her more for the building.

Melcher says her property is now worth about $400,000, based on a recent appraisal.

How long does her school have at this location? Jim Haines, program development engineer for the county, said the timeline is sketchy, but he guesses the purchase will occur next year, or in 1998 at the latest. Dave Carlsen, Hanson’s director of real estate, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Is Melcher worried? Not anymore. She has plans for a new school building, and even a site - on Evergreen, just six blocks south of her current spot. Now she’ll just wait it out - with a bigger, if temporary, building for her 85 students.

Melcher adds: “It was a dream of mine to have the childcare center I wanted.”

, DataTimes