Schools

Hart Elementary: Sell It or Keep It?

The Centennial ad hoc Land & Property Use Committee is looking for concrete ideas for the future of the former WREC Center.

If the Centennial School Board asked right now for the district's ad hoc Land and Property Use Committee recommendation on what to do with the Hart Elementary property, the best answer the members could give is to either sell it or keep it.

The committee has until the end of November to come up with a more creative, concrete answer, otherwise, says chairperson Jane Lynch, the monthly meetings that the committee have been attending since November 2012 would have been for nothing.

"We know that we want to keep it an open space," said Lynch. "And we don't want to just give the property away."

Various entities have been approached by members of the committee, including Burpee Seeds, Delaware Valley College, the Middle Bucks Institue of Technology and the Churchville Nature Center. So far, the only solid feedback has come from the Bucks County Conservancy, who will send a representative to the August 13 meeting to discuss options.

The Warminster Baseball Association expressed interest in the field behind the school. The loss of fields at the closed Leary Elementary has become a point of concern for the program because it does not have enough space for the early-age players. Warminster baseball would upgrade and maintain the fields at a cost of approximately $15,000, but the organization would need a multi-year agreement and permission to place a storage shed on the site.

The Warminster Board of Supervisors signed over the lease for the property at its last meeting. It's now up to the school district to have the land rezoned from an R-2 residential to a new designation that will keep it protected from development.

The other issue is figuring out what to do with the building itself. The Bucks County Conservancy is not interested in the former Hart Elementary, and the committee does not want to parcel out the 15-acre property. If the building does come down, the expense will likely come out of the district's pocket.

Business manager Christopher Berdnik said it would cost $425,000 to demo the building, plus $50,000 to tear out the asphalt. Berdnik said there is $500,000 of contingency funds in the capital reserve budget that could be used for the demolition.

Other members of the committee want to explore more opportunities to keep the property and rent out the building to commercial entities. Board member Mark Miller suggested getting in touch with solar panel companies that could install a solar array that would demonstrate to prospective customers how the technology can power a building.

"We can also get PetSmart or Petco to sponsor dog walks, for example," said Miller. "The sponsorships would subsidize what we want do with the property."

The committee agreed that the cost to keep and maintain the building would have to come from an alternative revenue, not out of the district's the general fund. Berdnik estimated that approximately $1 million would need to be raised to cover the cost of maintaining the building for the next 20 years.

The proposals all sounded like good ideas to Lynch, but at this point they are still just ideas. With the clock ticking on the ad hoc committee's temporary status, she needs a solid plan with firm commitments from interested parties before they can be presented.


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