By Don Wilkins

The former Texas Gas Transmission building at 3800 Frederica St. has become the target of vandalism, resulting in thousands of dollars in damages.

At least 20 of the window panes have been cracked or broken out of the building that largely consists of dark-tinted glass, giving it the distinct "black box" look.

The damaged windows are the ones facing the back parking lot and inside the courtyard area. Most of the vandalism has occurred in the courtyard -- an open space that's boxed in by the building. However, there's no fencing preventing anyone from entering the courtyard, which contains a dirty pond and overgrown weeds.

The 54-year-old building, owned by Owensboro Public Schools, has been vacant for three years.

OPS Superintendent Dr. Nick Brake said on Monday that he was aware of the vandalism that had taken place at the old Texas Gas site.

"I know we've had problems there," Brake said. "We've talked with the police and have been working with them about patrolling to try to catch some of it."

According to Owensboro Police Department records, five juveniles were charged on Dec. 12, 2015, with the Class A misdemeanor offense of second-degree criminal mischief for breaking three windows in Texas Gas' former motor-pool garage behind the main office building. Since then, there have been no other charges or arrests for the other damages.

"Our maintenance director seems to think it's the rocks in the courtyard and they're grabbing those," said Paula Roberts, OPS chief financial and operations officer, about what's being used to break the windows. She said none of the vandalism had occurred recently.

Some of the courtyard windows have been boarded up with plywood.

Roberts estimated that new windows would cost $3,000 to $4,000 per pane.

She said no financial commitment has been made to repairing the windows.

"We've got plywood over the ones that are the worst," Roberts said. "... We don't have any plans to replace them at the moment. We're just putting plywood up to keep the interior of the building blocked."

In August 2013, Texas Gas moved its 225 employees to its new 60,000 square-foot downtown location at 600 W. Second St. Texas Gas sold its larger 162,000 square-foot Frederica building to Riverfront Jam LLC, which is owned by Jack Wells and Matt Hayden.

Riverfront Jam then sold the Frederica site to OPS for $3 million. The deal was made under former OPS Superintendent Larry Vick and school board members Jane Haase, Dr. George Gilliam, John Blaney, Cate Lauzon and Nancy Eskridge.

Their original plan was to repurpose the old Texas Gas building into a middle school.

However, the Kentucky Department of Education denied OPS its request, citing the building was too large for a middle school.

After taking over the superintendent position in July 2013, Brake presented a plan to convert the Texas Gas building into a regional career and technical education center for 400 to 500 high school students that would be called the Innovation Academy. However, KDE struck down that request as well.

The Innovation Academy was eventually approved, but it was placed inside the lower level of the Centre for Business and Research, 1010 Allen St.

Brake said the Texas Gas sales agreement restricts the property from being sold for 10 years for anything other than educational purposes. It also gives Riverfront Jam first right of refusal for 30 years.

"Our hands are tied," Brake said. "The provisions I inherited for that property are so onerous that, if we had a legitimate person to sell it to, we really couldn't do it."

In the meantime, the 32-acre property is being used for OPS soccer practice fields and a cross-country course.

Brake said measures have been taken to reduce building costs such as heating and cooling.

For the 2015-16 fiscal year, OPS' upkeep expenses for the Texas Gas building were $15,000 for a private mowing company, $7,400 for electricity, $4,100 for water and sewage, $1,900 for incidental maintenance costs and $839 for natural gas.

"... I can't justify spending very much money on the building itself," Brake said. "We have really idled that property to where we're spending a minimum amount of money."