The Ames school board has decided to bid in an upcoming auction for university land after Iowa State turned down two previous offers.

Iowa State has set June 30 as the tentative date to auction off 122 acres of land located in southwest Ames, near the Holiday Inn Gateway Center. The Ames school board has been attempting to purchase the land from Iowa State since fall 1999, and board officials plan to put a bid in the upcoming auction.

The auction will be conducted by Rogers and Associates of Urbandale and likely will be held at the Holiday Inn Gateway Center.

Warren Madden, ISU vice president for Business and Finance, has been the authority on the issue for the university since the idea to sell the land to the board was broached.

“We have been actively talking with the Ames school board since the fall about the land,” Madden said.

School board member Mary Jane Bastiaans said she was “very surprised” when Iowa State turned down two of the board’s previous offers to buy the land. As reasoning, university officials cited raises in the land’s value.

“We thought we might be able to purchase the land directly from the university. However, this is like selling your home: If the owner suddenly decided not to sell it, that is the owner’s right, and we respect that,” Bastiaans said.

Bastiaans said if the board would get the land from the auction, it would be used to build a new middle school and an athletic complex. The land would also be used to convert the old middle school into an elementary school for Crawford.

If the board does not get the land, Bastiaans said “the board is always looking for new options.” She would not comment if there was a definite plan for another site for the new middle school.

Only a portion of the money generated from the auction will be used directly by the university, and of the 122 acres offered, 39 are owned by the ISU endowment fund, Madden said. The money generated from the sale of Iowa State’s portion will go into the endowment fund to be used for National Merit Scholarships.

Madden also said he speculates the land will be sold either as a whole or in differing blocks of 57 or 26 acres.