Followup from previous post: Did Penn State pay Second Mile to assume the Sandusky problem?
Was money funnelled to Sandusky’s benefit, not to victims? The dates make it possible this was the deal.
Selectively quoted from a Center Daily News story, slightly re-ordered:
Second Mile, PSU had land deal in 2002
By Ed Mahon Posted: 12:01am on Nov 16, 2011; Modified: 9:11am on Dec 21, 2011
Read more here:
http://www.centredaily.com/2011/11/16/2988115/charity-psu-had-land-deal-in-2002.html#storylink=cpy
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State sold about 40.7 acres of undeveloped land to The Second Mile for $168,500 in April 2002.
The price is what Penn State says it paid for the land in August 1999 — and about $151,500 less than what a Pittsburgh man paid for it in 1990.
Penn State originally purchased the 40.7 acres of land as part of a much larger purchase
Assistant football coach Mike McQueary told the grand jury that on March 1, 2002, he saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in the showers of the Lasch Football Building.
About a week-and-a-half later, McQueary met with Tim Curley, Penn State athletic director, and Gary Schultz, the retired senior vice president for finance and business.
The land sale was finalized on April 23, 2002.
[Note- the final Center for Excellence project had 60 acres, 20 more came from somewhere.]
The story of how The Second Mile obtained that 40.7 acres of Patton Township land dates back to October 1990, when the Winston Corp. sold the land to Mark Bookman, of Pittsburgh, for $320,000.
In August 1999, Bookman and his wife, Marsha, transferred the land to Penn State in two separate agreements.
In the first deed, the Bookmans and the Richard King Mellon Foundation are listed as the grantors of the lease. The price tag was $1, and the deed said they were selling a 50 percent undivided interest in the land.
In the second deed, the Bookmans are listed as the grantors, along with a real estate agent. In that agreement, the Bookmans also transferred a 50 percent undivided interest. The university paid the Bookmans $183,970, according to the deed.
The Bookmans could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The Richard King Mellon Foundation, which has reported having more than $1.7 billion in assets, provides grants and funding for conservation, regional economic development and education programs.
When reached by the Centre Daily Times on Tuesday afternoon, officials from the Mellon Foundation said they would need more time to research the agreement before they could comment.
That purchase was part of a larger one.
The Centre Daily Times reported in October 1999 that Penn State purchased 1,100 acres in State College and Patton, Ferguson, College and Potter townships for $3.8 million. The Richard King Mellon Foundation and Mellon Family Trust offered the properties to Penn State in a gift arrangement for half the selling price.
In September 2001, the university announced that the Penn State board of trustees had approved the sale of 40.7 acres of land to The Second Mile.
“The university will sell 40.7 acres in Patton Township to the Second Mile, former Penn State football defensive coach Jerry Sandusky’s nonprofit group for prevention, early intervention and community-based programs for Pennsylvania youth,” the university said in a statement in September 2001.
[How does this date fit?]
"The Second Mile offered to purchase the property, which has no strategic value to the university and adjoins a parcel already owned by the organization, for the same amount as its earlier cost.”
The news release said the purchase price for The Second Mile was $168,500. Siemenski said Tuesday that he believes that price, not the $183,970 noted on the deed, was Penn State’s cost for the property.
…
Assistant football coach Mike McQueary told the grand jury that on March 1, 2002, he saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in the showers of the Lasch Football Building.
About a week-and-a-half later, McQueary met with Tim Curley, Penn State athletic director, and Gary Schultz, the retired senior vice president for finance and business.
The land sale was finalized on April 23, 2002.
The Second Mile has been planning to build a $9 million learning center on the 41 acres. But the future of that project is now uncertain.
Sieminski, who signed the April 2002 deed on behalf of Penn State, said in an email Tuesday that the transaction was similar to others involving the Centre Region Council of Governments, State College Borough Water Authority, and Centre Hall Borough, Potter and Gregg Townships “where properties acquired from Mellon were sold by the university to be used by the parties for specific purposes. Also, another parcel acquired from Mellon was recently sold to the Church of Latter-day Saints on Whitehall Road.”
Could be coincidence, but I hope the Feds are looking at it. Very good reporting by CDN.
