SPANISH FORT — Approximately 53 acres north of I-10 in Spanish Fort was donated to Baldwin County Public Schools and was accepted on the condition that an Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is completed and cleared on the property.

The property, which is being donated by Deer Street Holdings LLC, is around three miles from Spanish Fort Elementary School and Spanish Fort High School as it runs along the southern portion of the Timbercreek subdivision.

The ESA is to ensure that no contaminants or pollutants are present on the property before it is handed over to the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE). These assessments are for the buyer (or in this case the recipient) to be informed of the environmental conditions of the property before they purchase (or accept the donation of) the property.

Ken Bradley, who represents District 1 on the school board, confirmed with officials that Phase I of the ESA had not been completed for the property by the time of the Dec. 10 BCBE meeting. He said "we can't establish a circle of liability" and that he would not vote to accept the property if Phase I was not complete.

Bradley said that was important to him because "whether or not we left a problem there, we'd be owning the problem."

Because of this, Bradley made the motion to amend the resolution to state that the property will be accepted only after it has earned a "clear" on the ESA. This amended acceptance for the donated land was approved at the meeting.