Former school property to be sold for debts

The former Pine Valley School property will be sold on the Morgan County Courthouse steps in a foreclosure sale at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15.

The large house and 100-acre property are located on Halcyon Lane, off of Winchester Grade Road, near the South Morgan Fire Hall.

Pine Valley School & Group Home opened in the fall of 2000 as a residential facility for troubled boys, who were placed there by courts and state agencies.

At its height, the school had 22 boys and about 40 employees. All students were removed from the facility in late 2003 after state agencies refused to renew the school’s license.

Executive director Anthony L. McBee filed for bankruptcy at the end of December, 2003.

For most of the time since then, the property has been involved in a complex lawsuit to decide who actually owned the property and how proceeds might be used to pay debts.

The lawsuit was resolved last summer and Guardian Services, LLC of Sullivan, Indiana was granted the right to foreclose and sell the property for money that the company is owed by Pine Valley, LLC.

In recent years, the property has been leased by STS International, a Berkeley Springs firm that does defense contracting work.