Drive past the old Big Park Community School and you'll likely see nothing worth a second glance: a low-slung campus, a parking lot, a sign that hasn't changed much since the district shut the doors. Big Park Community School, "Home of the Coyotes," closed in May 2020 after the Sedona-Oak Creek Consolidated School District decided it couldn't keep the doors open on declining enrollment and a shrinking budget. Most people who live in the Village stopped thinking about the building the same year.

They should start again. The district has accepted a $10 million offer on that property, and the deal now sitting in escrow is really a question about who controls the one room the Village treats as its own.

A Building With Three Names

The property up for sale isn't just a shuttered elementary school. Since the closure, the site has quietly become something closer to the Village's only civic address. The Community Library operates there. Big Park Council, the group that functions as the closest thing the Village has to a representative body, holds its in-person meetings there too, on the second Thursday of the month at 9 a.m.

So when the district talks about selling "the Big Park School Property," it's also talking about the library card catalog, the reading programs, and the folding chairs Big Park Council sets up once a month when it meets residents face to face instead of over Zoom. One sale, three functions, one address.

What $10 Million Actually Buys

According to Big Park Council's own posted updates, the buyers are Basil and Mimi Maher, described as active supporters of the community, and their bid includes a commitment to maintain the library and provide community space going forward. That's a meaningful detail, and it's also the entire reason this deal is worth watching rather than filing away as routine district business.

Here's where things actually stand, as of Big Park Council's most recent posted updates:

• The school district has accepted the Mahers' offer, but the sale contract is still pending, not closed.
• The Mahers' bid includes language to keep the library running and preserve community space, but that commitment lives in the terms of a private purchase offer, not in a recorded deed restriction or a zoning condition.
• Yavapai County, Big Park Council, and the school board have not yet met with the buyers. That meeting is still ahead, scheduled for "a future date" with no date attached yet.

None of that makes the Mahers' intentions suspect. It does mean the library's future currently rests on the wording of a purchase agreement between private parties, worked out before the community groups who use the space have had their sit-down with the new owners.

No One Here Can Force the Point

It's tempting to assume a city council or a planning commission could step in and attach conditions if the terms ever shifted. The Village of Oak Creek doesn't have one. The Village is unincorporated Yavapai County, part of the Big Park census-designated place, which means county government handles what a city hall would handle almost anywhere else, from law enforcement to permitting.

Big Park Council fills the gap, but it fills it as an advisory body, not a government. It was incorporated in 1997 and today represents 23 residential, business, and educational organizations covering more than 6,100 residents. Its own description of its role is direct:

"the voice of the Village to government and private organizations affecting Village life"

A voice carries weight. It doesn't carry a vote on a property closing, and it doesn't come with the authority to attach conditions to a private sale the way a zoning board might. The same county structure shows up in smaller ways too. Yavapai County's Board of Supervisors, not a Sedona city department, is the body that recently approved Ordinance 2025-14 prohibiting the unlawful feeding of wildlife in the Village and other unincorporated areas. County rules, county enforcement, no city hall in between. That's the backdrop the school property sale is playing out against.

The Room Is Already Being Used Again

While the sale sits pending, life inside the building hasn't paused. Big Park Council's meeting format has bounced between Zoom-only sessions and in-person gatherings at the Community Library over the past several months, landing back in person for its September 10 meeting this year. Residents who want a seat at the table, quite literally, have been walking back into the same building whose ownership is still being negotiated above their heads.

That's the part easy to miss in a story framed around a dollar figure and two new names. The Village isn't waiting to see if the room stays useful before it starts using it again. It's already back inside, discussing county business, school district updates, and neighborhood concerns, in a space it doesn't yet know who will ultimately answer to.

Everything Else That Changed This Year

The school property is the biggest thread, but it's not the only one running through the Village right now, and the smaller changes tell a consistent story: this is a place where a handful of named locations carry an outsized share of daily life.

The Village lost both of its recycling drop points this year. The collection site behind the Element Hotel and the one behind Cornville Mercantile store both closed permanently, effective June 17, 2026, a fact Big Park Council posted directly from the site operator.

On the lighter side, the Village Gallery of Local Artists has kept its rotating Featured Artist program going through the spring and summer, with gourd artist Jodi Imms taking May 2026 and glass and crystal artist Judith Beals following in June, each with a First Friday reception from 5 to 8 p.m. It's the kind of recurring, low-key civic rhythm that doesn't make headlines but fills a Friday evening calendar for anyone who wants one.

The Collective Plaza has had its own reshuffle. Dellepiane, once known mainly for its empanadas, has grown into a full Argentine grill, seafood market, and burger bar, and in the process spun its original empanadas off into a standalone concept, Willy's Empanada House, sitting about 70 feet from the main restaurant. Elsewhere in the Village, Flew the Coop, the Nashville hot chicken spot, relocated in from Camp Verde, and Drewbies, the casual counter-service spot known for its ceiling mosaic and its view of Courthouse Butte, has kept serving since opening in late 2024.

None of these are large developments. That's the point. In a community this compact, one plaza can hold two restaurants that split from the same kitchen, one gallery can carry the entire monthly art calendar, and one library building can double as the school district's biggest pending transaction and the council's only real meeting room.

What to Watch

The library commitment in the Mahers' offer is a real and specific term, and there's no indication anyone involved intends to walk it back. But a commitment inside a pending purchase offer isn't the same as a guarantee written into public record, and the meeting between the county, Big Park Council, and the buyers that would put more detail behind that commitment hasn't happened yet. Until it does, the most accurate thing anyone can say about the future of that building is that it depends on a conversation that hasn't taken place.

If you're keeping an eye on what happens to the Village's civic center as this sale moves toward closing, Cindy Chapman Group follows Big Park Council's updates closely and is happy to walk you through what any of it might mean, whether you're a longtime Village resident or just trying to understand how the place actually runs.