http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120531/OPINION02/705319949
Published May 31, 2012 in the Rutland Herald
Fate of school hangs in balance
The nonprofit leadership ability of the town of Springfield is being put to the test. The fate of Park Street School is balanced on the edge of a knife and leaning towards the abyss. While there is a large segment of the town that wants that building saved and brought back into public use, especially the portion containing the gym and auditorium, I fear that a larger segment of the town has given up on the building and fully expects it to be closed, vacated and "left to rot."
The question is do the town, the school system, the housing authority, the hospital and other organizations in the community have the leadership ability and will power to figure out a solution to this problem, or will the building simply be allowed to go into cold storage and rot? I remember taking a person on a tour of the old Gear Shaper building with the hopes that the person would step in and save the building. His response to that challenge was, "I would advise a person not to walk away from this building, but to run away from it." That complex has been saved.
Can the historical heart of Springfield, Park Street School, with its auditorium and gym be saved? That depends on whether the people of Springfield are up to the challenge, whether their investment in nonprofits and support of the leadership of those nonprofits was a wise investment. We are likely to find out the answer to those questions in the immediate future.
GEORGE T. McNAUGHTON
Springfield
George, we taxpayers in Spfld are completely milked out by projects with good intentions. This is the same non sense that was used to squander funds on the financially defunct, wreck center. An albatross that has had no impact on a resurgence of prosperity here.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the Fellows/100 River St. boondoggle is just your and my tax dollars, I mean stimulus money, redistributed to an out-of-state developer that's pocketed millions in "administrative" costs. A boondoggle that's yet to attract a tenant other then the hospital. Whose lease is for only a minor part of the facility.
As an employer and commercial property owner I can speak first hand. No one of means wants to do business in Springfield or raise their family here. The demographics, blighted buildings, deteriorating neighborhoods, vacant store fronts, poor schools, lack of entertainment/social options, and burdensome taxes all play into it.
Want to make a positive impact? Push for stricter zoning. Curtail expansion of low income housing. Force commercial building owners and non resident slum lords to make repairs and paint as needed. Raze vacant/abandoned buildings. Put surplus municipal property up for sale to off set taxes. If the Park Street School has such great potential, let a successful commercial developer step in, or do it yourself.
Hm, I would say that you are a part of the real problem in Springfield. We need more progressive projects like the Rec Center not less, and the Fellows/100 River St. project is one of the best things that has happened to Springfield in a long time. If the private sector could be relied upon to do all of the big projects that are needed in Springfield, they would have done so by now. But just because the private sector hasn't stepped up to the plate, does not mean that we should simply discard these buildings and let them become part of the problem. A classic positive example of what can be done with old school buildings is what occurred in our neighboring community in Windsor. It took a lot of political contention and struggle to make that happened, but they got the job done despite many armchair naysayers in the community.
DeleteNo Jack, you and your ilk are the major problem. You are analytically deprived and obviously blind to the myriad of problems that Springfield has failed to address for decades now. Folks like you are the White Elephant trainers of the Springfield Circus and thanks to the likes of you Springfield has become the town where White Elephants come to suffer and finally die.
DeleteOh yes, Windsor. Now there's a prime example of a Vermont economic miracle...NOT! Try extracting your head from your fourth point of contact Jack and see the real world and Springfield for what it is and the real problems that it needs to solve before your so blithely support spending other people's money on such incredibly foolish projects.
DeleteWell, not sure which "real world" Anonymous 10:08 is seeing, but I hesitantly agree with Machine Town Financier on some of the following: "The demographics, blighted buildings, deteriorating neighborhoods, vacant store fronts, poor schools, lack of entertainment/social options, and burdensome taxes all play into it." Blighted buildings and deteriorating neighborhoods and lack of entertainment/social options do play a part in the issues which Springfield must overcome. I would think, however, that part of the task of overcoming such issues is to make sure that none of the public entities do not add to the inventory of vacated buildings, and that they act responsibly in leading the way and facilitating the conversion of any building they deem to be a surplus into a use which helps solve one of the problems which he lists. I don't believe that just vacating Park Street is a responsible option and the cost of tearing it down both economically and socially is most likely in excess of converting it. What amazes me is how easy it is for people to fire off attacks on people struggling to find solutions without putting forward any solutions themselves or than doing nothing at all -- that isn't solving real problems like the abundance of large empty buildings we have in Springfield or deteriorating communities, that is just shrugging ones shoulders and giving up.
ReplyDeletelike the rec center has brought in a lot of money.. they cant even pay there taxes..
ReplyDeleteThroughout American history the public sector has led the way in development and redevelopment and the private sector has followed. Nearly everytime the government has opted out of this leadership role and depended upon the private sector it has led basically to disaster whether it was Herbert Hoover or George W. Bush. On the other hand, when the public sector has teamed with the private sector to get a large project done such as the construction of the Erie Canal, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the creation of the Interstate Highway System, the internet, etc. it has helped spur new growth. We have a choice in Springfield, we can get our public sector to lead the way in sprucing up the town, getting our large buildings redeveloped and occupied or we can take the position that they are merely caretakers who administer tax revenues while our town deteriorates and the large buildings are vacated and crumble around us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for saying this. We need to take some action.
DeleteAthelred the Clueless Kool Aid Drinker is lost in a world of make believe in which propaganda serves as suppposed knowledge. The "public sector" influence in innovation and modernization has waned considerably and is no longer the catalyst for progress that it once was -- although it would still like to fool the gullible like Athelrod into believing it. Today's innovation and wealth creation now comes squarely from the private sector, while the stodgy, arcane public sector foolishly attempts to cling to the ways of the past, it's influence and alleged dominance now discredited as its bureaucratic buffoons focus on confiscation from wealth creating America in a vain attempt to retain power and some semblance of relevancy. The model today has become "spin on", in which the private sector innovation and creativity is available for adoption by the government. The relic that was "spin off", in which a strong centralized bureaucracy sought to harness the bulk of the nation's resources and then monopolistically decide how to convert them to "benefits for the little people" is now relegated to the dust bin of history.
DeleteWe have a very different view of what the private sector has accomplished. Most of the innovation is occurring near government funded research facilities on or near university campuses. Much of the money going into that research is government funded. The over reliance upon the private sector advocated by the fiscal conservatives has the potential to relegate America to the dustbin of history. Fortunately, the GOP mainstream doesn't actually believe the Tea Party rhetoric and does it government inspired stimulus through massive defense expenditures, but that is not the preferrable way of doing it.
DeleteThe private sector is the problem? Well the Obama administration's track record in public/private partnerships has been a failure.....Solyndra for one.
DeleteThe Bush administration shares some of the blame in regards to Solyndra:
Deletehttp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/09/13/317594/timeline-bush-administration-solyndra-loan-guarantee/?mobile=nc
I heard some idiot bus driver dropped 4 kids off in the middle of Route 106 on Thursday, wheres that news??
ReplyDeleteDear 'enraged parent'
DeleteAre you the former 'DB'?
Because you sure sound like one.
I heard the cow jumped over the moon...
DeleteI also heard the mysterious ficticious bus driver duct-taped the mysterious ficticious children to the center line of Rt 106.....I'm ENRAGED!
DeleteMy son was one of the students that was dropped off in the middle of Route 106. My son and 3 of his friends had to cross Route 106 right near where an adult was killed then walk the 2 miles to baseball practice. I am not dismissing the fact that my son moved his seat but it was explained to me by a few witnesses that the bus was stopped, and the driver was yelling at the entire baseball team for weeks. The drivers actions cost him to lose his job.
DeleteThis has what to do with Park Street?
DeleteNothing, I saw the post about the kids being dropped off in the middle of Route 106. Of course, Anonymous had to make remarks showing how much knowledge about a subject they really didn't have. (try putting your REAL name out there) As one of the parents of the kids, I wanted to make sure the truth was told. Please, lets get back to the actual article. Park St School.
DeleteThe Springfield Tax payer needs relief not more boondoggles. The Park St school needs to be closed unless the private sector steps up to use it. We have most of the section 8 housing for Windsor County in Springfield. These people do not pay their fair share of taxes but use the services in town so the Springfield property tax payer is subsidizing them. We need to cut cost where ever possible.
ReplyDeleteCutting costs wherever possible, is in part responsible for the fact that we have most of the Section 8 housing located here. If we keep abandoning buildings in Springfield, it will drag down property values further and make the Town even less desireable to the middle-class. It is important that the government lead the way in keeping buildings occupied and presentable. Right now we have a dirty and crumbling Community Center at the beginning of the downtown sector and a particle board palace at the other end of the downtown sector. The Town should be avoiding adding to the decrepit building inventory if we ever want to break the downward spiral. Cost cutting is just going to accelerate the downward spiral.
Deletehttp://imgur.com/RdbEH
ReplyDeleteLook their are ways to implement the Park st building that will postively impact the tax bracket for the residents but nobody wants to address those.
ReplyDeleteI suggest that the gateway school be moved back into Park street. This will save the school district (ie:budget) money every year instead of shelling out money to lease the current space gateway is in. What that exact savings is I do not know but it is a good chunk of money.
Second, I suggest that we move the parks and rec dept into the gym in Park st and have the town lease the space. Tear down the current parks and rec building and put in a two tier paid car paring lot for the downtown district. Again, the lease to the town would decrease the school budget because it is revenue to the school district thus lowering the school budget amount to taxpayers.
Third, Vermont is home to dozens of New York based summer stock theater companies. Park Street has an amazing auditorium. Let's reach out to new york theater and arts companies and see if we can lease the space to them for summer stock or theater workshops etc on a fulltime basis. Again, it is revenue to the school district while enhancing the arts community and hopefully drawing others in for arts events.
The space has an excellent kitchen facility. Why cant we investigate if that portion can be leased to the family center for meals etc. or to meels on wheels or to some forward thinking resturantuer who could develop something. Space could be leased to the senior center. There is enough space in that building that upstairs spaces/classrooms could be leased to artists for workspaces.
Great ideas Anonymous 6/4 @ 4:25.
DeleteI have said for several years that the building is a daimond in the rough. It has served well for 100 years, and could do well for another 100 years with renovations.
Perhaps you should run for the School or the Select board, and present these ideas to the town folks.
Several of these ideas have been suggested in reports by the sub-committee on usage to the School Board's Committee. Currently the School District pays out $72,000.00 in rent to the Catholic Church in order to house Gateway. Gateway's program could easily be incorporated into Park Street. In addition, the sub-committee discussed usage of a portion of the building by Parks and Recreation. The question is will any of these ideas gain traction while certain people are calling for the school to be completely vacated, abandoned and the heat turned off.
DeleteThe 'theater' is useless. Until the roof is blown off and a fly system is installed, new lighting system installed, etc, etc, they space is pretty, but not a viable theater. Can you say millions of dollars????
DeleteParking garage? Rutland tried that and it didnt work out too well and they actually have business to draw customers. How many people would be drawn to the downtown are to pay to park? The larger problem is that this state is hostile to business, until that changes we will have plenty of open store fronts. Until the climate is more business freindly we will lose out to Claremont.
Delete"Fly system?"
DeleteFly system - cables, ropes, pulleys which enable lifting sets, lights, etc. safely, over the stage. In other words, something required by any touring company.
DeleteMany years ago when I was a student there I buried a treasure in the school. I had found the loot in the Stone Chamber near the Miller Art Center and needed a place to hide it.
ReplyDeleteThe treasure I am sure at one time belonged to the Vikings. The Vikings believed,unfortunately erroneously, that Comtu Falls hid the entrance into Valhalla. They were storing what they had pillaged in the cave in preparation of crossing over into Valhalla. Sadly it appears they never made it.
I hid the gold in the gymnasium under the floorboards while they were being replaced. Unfortunately due to the passage of time I am unsure of which ones exactly. Wait. Upon further reflection I think I may have hidden the gold behind one of the blackboards.
The good news is that there is enough gold hidden in that school to restore Springfield to its former glorious state and maybe with enough left over to even pave the streets with gold and it won't cost the taxpayers anything! It's there I tell you!
The Town should immediately develop a plan to demolish the school and find the gold. They may wish to involve some enterprising private party to partner with. Perhaps a sharing arrangement with the entrepreneur being reimbursed for his expenses in the demolition with the proceeds from the sale of the gold. Oh joyous day!
There you have it. A simple solution to a sensitive problem.
The gold is in there somewhere. All you have to do is find it. Dig away, guys.
Lol...
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ReplyDeleteSorry, we cannot allow entire newspaper articles to be posted here. We have to be careful to respect copyrighted material. A brief quote or two from an article may be okay.
ReplyDeleteDear Administrator,
DeleteSince that is the case I felt obliged to forward the blog address and your contact information on to Hearst and other publication companies which you have attached full entire articles and video to your blog so they may ensure that their own copyright has not been violated.