Jasper Council agrees to sell portion of Camp Carnes

The Jasper Common Council agreed with the Jasper Park Board’s recommendation to sell a portion of the former Camp Carnes property to Little Spruce Nature School.

The sale is part of the process the board has taken on to remove the property from the park department’s assets. They made the decision to consider selling the property in 2022 when it was identified as an underutilized property.

The city received the property in 1989 with the deed restriction that it be used for recreational purposes. To move forward with the sale, the city filed through the Dubois County Circuit Court to remove that restriction from the deed. It was granted earlier this month.

The Little Spruce Nature School has been leasing space from the parks department for about six years to operate its nature-based pre-kindergarten program for children three to five years old. According to City Attorney Renee Kabrick, the parks department began discussing options for the program to have a permanent location last year as they considered selling the Camp Carnes property.

However, Camp Carnes is about 40 acres and Little Spruce would not need the entire property to support its programming. So, the city worked wth Brosmer Land Surveying to divide the property into three tracts, 9.6 acres for Little Spruce, 28 acres of woodlands, and a two acre lot with the home near the entrance to the park. There is also an additional .75 acre parcel across the road from the park that the city owns.

In regards to the sale involving Little Spruce, under Indiana law the city does not have to conduct appraisals to find a median value for the property the educational program operates as a nonprofit. According to Kabrick, through a series of conversations with the Little Spruce board, a $40,000 sale price of the acreage was agreed upon. She pointed out that in considering the price, they had to make allowance in that the nonprofit will have to renovate the buildings on the property and add a septic system to continue to operate.

According to Park and Recreation Director Tom Moorman, the property sale could be used to fund something honoring boy scouts since that was the original use for the camp. Additional thoughts include funding alternatives for the outdoor pool project or playground equipment.

The council approved the sale to Little Spruce.