Seminole County commissioners agreed Monday to charge the American Red Cross $1 a year to lease a former motor vehicle inspection station for a food distribution center and chairman Robert Sturm tossed in a contribution for the first year's rent.
Commissioners are expected to vote today on the lease. No formal action could be taken during Monday's work session.
The American Red Cross in Seminole County, which distributes surplus food to needy families once a month, had asked to use the former inspection station on 25th Street to solve problems volunteers have faced at other locations they have used as distribution centers.
The May distribution still is scheduled for Crooms High School on West 13th Street but Red Cross representatives said they hope to be in the county-owned inspection station by June.
Jenny Penny, director of the American Red Cross Seminole Services Center, had said that the school was unsuitable for distribution because the doorways were narrow, making food deliveries difficult, and the doors leading in and out of the rooms used were too close together.
Crooms High School was used as the distribution center this month, but before that the Red Cross doled out surplus food at the county's agricultural center at Five Points. With Flea World across the street, weekend distributions caused traffic and crowd problems, Penny said.
Neither of the previous sites allowed storage of the food, so supplies had to be transported several times a day in refrigerated trucks from Atlantic Ice in south Orlando, she said.
With a more permanent location, the Red Cross can install refrigerated storage rooms, she said.
The lease will be up for renewal annually.
Penny had said the Red Cross had no money in its budget for renting space and she had hoped that the county would allow the use of the MVI station rent- free.
The county advertised the sale or lease of the station in late March and early April but no one submitted an offer, said county administrator Ken Hooper.
Commissioner Barbara Christensen said the county is losing money by allowing the Red Cross to use the Sanford center for $1 a year when higher- paying tenants could be found.
Commissioner Fred Streetman chided Sturm about his $1 contribution, saying the chairman could have donated the rent money last week when he met with Red Cross representatives but instead waited until "a public meeting" to toss in his dollar.
Casselberry is renting for $500 a month the county's other MVI station near city hall for a maintenance shop and storage area for utility equipment. The stations were closed in September 1981 when the state quit requiring inspections.