UNION GROVE - The future of the proposed Wisconsin Air Academy is all the more murkier as the result of several recent developments.

Academy backers on July 11 made their second offer in two years to purchase the former Union Grove Grade School, 810 14th St. But last week, the Village of Union Grove also made its own offer to purchase the school site.

And, on July 18, a suit was filed in Racine County Circuit Court against the Air Academy and its founder for breach of contract regarding planning and construction management for a site the academy was looking at on Highway 11 west of Highway H in Sturtevant.

The suit, filed on behalf of Baton Rouge, La.-based Liberty Construction Management, seeks $82,450 in owed money and damages for construction management and building design plans for a school for the academy.

Neither academy founder Jeffrey Starke, Principal Bill Orris or local attorneys for Liberty Construction returned phone calls on Tuesday seeking comment on the suit.

Meanwhile, Linton Skewes, president of the Union Grove Elementary School District, confirmed Tuesday that the district is preparing a counter offer to the village's offer for the former grade school, which closed in 2003 after a new elementary wing was added at the middle school building on Milldrum Street.

Union Grove Village President Mike Aimone said Tuesday that the village's plans for the 6-acre grade school site are simply for green space at this point in time. The village has been working for several years to try to obtain and/or develop additional park and recreation space in the village.

"We see it as an opportunity to get six acres in the center of our community," said Aimone.

He noted that the grade school's playing fields are already used by the village's recreation program for baseball and as a practice field for the Racine Youth Sports' football program.

Terms of the village's offer, or that of the Air Academy, have not been disclosed as negotiations are still fluid. But Skewes said an appraisal received approximately two years ago estimated the value of the grade school site at about $900,000. Air Academy officials offered $450,000 for the site in 2007, Skewes said.

Skewes, Aimone and Starke all agree that the Air Academy's 2007 offer fell through when a bank backed away from financing the project. Skewes said the bank was seeing a land contract-type deal for the property, which would have required less of a down payment for the academy backers.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Starke and Orris brought several backers from the Civil Air Patrol, a civilian organization affiliated with the U.S. Air Force, to try to make a case on behalf of the academy and to address what Starke perceives as a less than receptive attitude from village officials.

Starke said the academy, proposed to be a private, for-profit military school for high school and junior high school age children, will offer a Civil Air Patrol program for its cadets.

Starke blames the village for what he alleges is selective enforcement of code requirements at the grade school site which thwarted a summer school program the academy had advertised. He noted such requirements were not placed on the Red Cross when the school was used as a temporary shelter for residents displaced by January's tornado or June's floods.

"This is impeding progress for me as a businessman," Starke said. "I have parents who are chomping at the bit to get their kids into this program."

Starke alleges the village gave permission for the academy to set up shop two years ago at the grade school, but Aimone and trustees said Monday that only zoning was approved for the site and that state certified building plans for the school building would have needed to be submitted, reviewed and approved and code improvements like a sprinkler system would have been required. Such improvements are estimated to cost more than $1 million, a price tag that Starke says would adversely affect proposed tuition rates.

Starke told the Village Board on Monday that rumors are that the village has long wanted the school site for a park and asked if the board had a "hidden agenda." He also asked if Aimone's living across the street from the school site was influencing board policy. Aimone said he bought the home when it was still being used as an active school site.

"What happened two years ago is you walked away from the sale," Aimone told Starke. "We have changed nothing."

Other than Civil Air Patrol supporters of the academy project, only one person spoke about the village's offer. Resident Diana Homburg told board members she does not believe there is a need for more parkland within the village.

In another matter related to the Air Academy, the owners of a Yorkville horse farm have terminated relations with the Air Academy, according to the Racine County Planning and Economic Development Committee. Starke and Orris had proposed using the property on 67th Drive south of Highway C as a potential site for the academy or at least for equestrian programs. The Yorkville Town Board in April rejected the proposal after numerous objections from neighboring residents.