RUTLAND – After about a year of looking into its options, the Rutland School District sold the Rambler Stop on Oct. 2 for $38,000 to Mike and Erin Prins, closing the deal on Oct. 23.

The Rambler was owned by the school district and served as a part of the high school’s business management curriculum. Construction began on the Rambler Stop in June 1998, and an open house and grand opening was held in October 1998. 

With self-service gas and diesel, milk, bread, ice and other typical convenience store fare, it was a place for those business students to get hands-on business experience.

According to Kathleen Trower, the Rutland junior high social studies teacher and high school business teacher, depending on the year, the business management class typically had 12-15 students.

When it first began, students had a greater role in running the Rambler, with adults eventually acting as manager. Still, students could take on a wide range of duties there, such as working shifts, taking inventory, ordering stock and reconciling the tills.

It was never the goal of the district to make money from the store, said Rutland School District Superintendent Peter Books, but for years now, the store needed heavy subsidization. In the last 10 years, it cost the district anywhere from $18,000-$24,000 in general fund dollars in a given year.

“It just came to a time where, financially, we just couldn’t do that anymore,” Books explained.

For a year, school district officials explored various options on what to do with the Rambler, holding community meetings and sending out informational letters. Even though the school board and others wanted to find a way to keep it open, after much diligence, they decided selling it was the best option available.

The Rambler officially closed on July 31. The coffee groups that would meet at the Rambler were invited to come to have their drinks at the school in August and they met at the Rambler in September.

“I got a lot of feedback once the community understood we were subsidizing it as much as we were that this probably wasn’t the best use of money out of the general fund,” Books said. “With the new funding formula, when that changed a couple of years ago, we knew that just down the road it was going to be harder and harder to save money. So, with a big chunk subsidizing the Rambler Stop, we knew we weren’t financially able to subsidize it anymore.”

He and others from the Rutland School District weren’t sure how much to expect from the auction since they had nothing else with which to compare it. They had it appraised for $20,333, and Books said he would have been happy with anything more than $25,000. But bidding brought the sale price up to $38,000, with 50-75 people in attendance, curious to see the results, too.

“When it went over $30,000, we were pretty excited,” Books said. “I think it was the best result we could have asked for.”

The money from the sale and money that would have gone to subsidizing the Rambler can now be used to improve the district’s general fund health.

“That’ll really help our general fund because our general isn’t really healthy right now,” Books said. “Every little bit in the general will help moving forward.”

Mike Prins, owner of the Flandreau Veterinary Clinic, was the purchaser. He confirmed that his plans are to convert the Rambler into the Rutland Veterinary Clinic.

“We hope to open in early November, and it’ll be an ongoing process,” he said of the remodeling process.

He and his wife both work as vets at the Flandreau clinic, which they’ve owned for 4 1/2 years. They’ll split their time between the two facilities once the Rutland clinic can open.

“It’ll be something where we learned a lot from our current facility and we’re going to take what we learned and make it better in the next facility,” Prins said.

For now, work will focus on converting the convenience store into a vet clinic setup, complete with an exam room and surgery suite. Once these crucial aspects of the business are taken care of, they can work on getting shelving and displays the way they like. As the business gets established, they can bring on more employees, too.

In the long term, he plans on adding another building there for large animals.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.

Courtesy photo