By Katy Savage, Standard Staff
The Bridgewater Village School is coming down.
The decision to demolish the 100-year-old building was made in a 47-37 paper ballot vote at a public hearing (Nov. 30, 2016) last Wednesday.
“Oh my God,” some residents in the back of the room that night said in shock.
Some were dismayed by the perceived urgent request for voters to decide to take down the building. The select board didn’t offer any other options or suggestions for what would be placed in the building’s absence.
There was no formal cost estimate to demolish the building, but select board chair Nope Martin said Able Waste gave an estimate of $100,000.
“There’s a lot of people here who feel very uninformed,” resident Lesley Scales said.
Resident Brian Bontrager asked to delay the vote 60 days to allow time for a study committee to form and explore options. His motion was denied 50-35 in a paper ballot vote. Others asked to delay the vote until Town Meeting in March.
Martin wanted to move forward.
“Why don’t we just vote no?” he offered as an option for the people who wanted more information before making a decision.
One resident asked Martin if he planned to bid on the building’s demolition.
“Probably,” he said.
Martin owns an excavation company and he bids on most town projects. He’s sometimes picked as a bidder. In the spring he was granted $33,000 to repair a section of Little Sherburne Road.
There was some speculation last Wednesday that the select board wanted to take the school down for a new emergency services building.
There was an informational meeting about the future of the school in October where the fire department presented a $1.5 million plan to reuse part of the school for a fire station. Fire Chief Ed Earle said over the phone recently that the aging school wasn’t feasible to do that.
Martin confirmed last Wednesday night there would be another public hearing about future use of the school’s land for an emergency services building.
The school building sits on about one acre of land. A town-owned field, about 1 1/2 acres, is beside it.
When asked later by phone what he thought should be done with the land without a school, Martin declined to comment.
“That’s what this is really about,” said a resident in a group in the back of the room, which audibly sighed on Wednesday after the vote.
“Another conflict of interest in Bridgewater,” one resident said.
Select board member Mary Oldenburg, who is on the FAST Squad, and Martin said they thought the building should come down last Wednesday, explaining it was costly to maintain.
The school closed in 2015 when Bridgewater and Pomfret schools combined.
The school building is valued at $637,500 on the grand list.
The town budgeted about $60,000 to maintain the building last year and spent about $33,000. Parts of the 13,000 square-foot school building are 100 years old.
Criterium Lalancette Engineers of Rutland completed a study on the building in May. The 80-page report ranked every piece of the building. The water system was in “good” condition, the report said, the heating system was in “good” to “fair” condition, the interior was “average.” The building needed significant ceiling tile repair and needed repair to a cracked foundation, the report said. The report recommended the select board make improvements to the building within the next year, including repairs to the heating system and foundation.
Martin said it could be demolished by next summer.
“We’re a long way from taking down the building,” he said.
This article first appeared in the December 8, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.