Can Cohanzie School Be Saved?

Last night, Kathleen Reagan delivered an impassioned, well-reasoned, and eloquent speech asking the RTM to reconsider its decision to raze Cohanzie School.

"Waterford is being neutralized," she said. "We are losing our Waterford communities."

Since founding Save Our Neighborhood School seven weeks ago, she said she has spoken to a number of people involved in historic preservation at the state level, all of whom have informed her that there is grant money available to study ways to repurpose historic buildings and all of whom are willing to assist the town if it wants to preserve the building.

"Asbestos and poor air quality and buried oil tanks are always present in old schools, but old schools are repurposed all the time," she said. "I have a group of people with me who believe Cohanzie School can be preserved for future town use."

In a matter of hours, she told the RTM, she'd amassed 50 signatures on a petition to save the school to add to the 25 she'd previously gathered to stay the demolition.

"The history of the land is public use," said Reagan. "It is wrong to take the land and privatize it. To remove the school removes the community. The building is solid and intact and ready for repurposing."

For a number of town leaders, however, her pleas are too little, too late. Had she come forward three or four years ago when the town was discussing the future of the closed school, they said, the community support she is now gathering in favor of saving the building would probably have made a difference.

But the school has been dark, cold, and empty since it closed in 2008 and the Board of Selectmen and the RTM have already voted in favor of demolishing the building—and have obtained a $500,000 grant from the state to that end.

Hope Springs Eternal

Reagan's arguments didn't fall entirely on deaf ears, however. William Auwood, RTM representative for the 2nd district, said he wasn't convinced that the town needed to knock down the building to entice someone to buy the property.

"I think we made a mistake myself," he said.

As Reagan noted, the issues involved in repurposing a historic building such as Cohanzie School are not unique and certainly it has been done before. However, the cost of doing so may be prohibitive for the town.  

RTM Moderator Tom Dembeck estimates would cost a few million dollars to renovate the building and bring it up to contemporary building codes, which would necessitate dealing with asbestos, installing elevators, and redoing every bathroom to make it ADA compliant.

The fact that the town has no particular need or use in mind for an additional municipal building also makes it difficult to justify the cost of saving it, Dembek said, because taxpayers would have to foot that bill. The cost of restoring the building may also be the reason why no developer has stepped forward to buy the property.

"We're trying to cut back and control costs," Dembek said. "The idea is to try to get the property on the tax rolls."

Reagan, however, isn't giving up hope.

"It's not too late to save Cohanzie," she said. "Historic buildings are often saved at the last minute."