Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The fate of the old high school gym on Water Street is now seemingly sealed. After some hope that the school district might be able to secure a federal grant through NextEra for the restoration of the 73-year-old building, that possibility is gone.
Planning Official Shannon Metty, who has been acting as the local liaison with NextEra, confirmed recently that after numerous setbacks, all attempts to secure a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for the building have ceased.
“We exhausted all avenues,” Metty said. “The time has run out for a USDA grant.”
Meanwhile, the Police Athletic League (PAL), which has been leasing the building in an attempt to operate a youth program there, is pulling out of the arrangement.
Attorney David Collins, who represents the organization as legal counsel, informed the Jefferson County School Board via letter last week that the group was ending its lease of the building and asked for 60 days to be able to remove its equipment from the premises.
“The reasoning for such termination is that PAL has exhausted all funds in order to keep said gym secure and has been unable to do such,” Collins wrote. “Many PAL items have been stolen, vandalized and outright destroyed.”
“It has been our dream that the community funding secured partially from the NextEra settlement could have made the gym a model for community unity and opportunity for the youth to gain from,” wrote Collins, who largely negotiated the settlement with the energy company.
Unfortunately, he concluded, “elected officials have not, nor ever, been able to agree on a single subject to realize said dream.”
The Jefferson County School Board voted reluctantly in June to work with NextEra to seek a grant for the repair of the building. In the end, however, the effort to secure a grant from the USDA failed to materialize.
Erected in 1948 and renovated in 1979, the gym long served the high school for its athletic activities and general assemblies, until it was abandoned in the 1990s. In has since fallen into disrepair, although PAL held programs there until recently and hoped to be have it renovated.
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