BATH

In addition to approving a contract with a company to expand the gas collection system at the city landfill, the Bath City Council on Wednesday discussed what to do with the Huse School, a question it ultimately sent to its Economic Development Committee for a recommendation.

The school, located at 39 Andrews Road, was built in 1941 with an addition added in 1949. It sits on a 16.69-acre lot including ball fields.

Andrew Deci, the city’s planning director, told the council, “We have a big policy issue to discuss tonight related to the Huse School and its eventual future. The property is a property the city owns. We own a lot of properties that are in this situation and we need to consider the same sorts of policy issues. Are we the best stewards of the property? Who are future potential users for the property? How much money are we willing to spend to maintain or upgrade the building in order for it to be occupied, and how important is that building to our community?”

City Manager Bill Giroux told councilors, “One of the things that we’re after tonight is for the council to at least begin to think about: Do you want to own this building and be landlords? That’s probably the easiest thing to do, is to fill it up. One of the difficulties is … that’s a half-million dollar budget out there that we spend and that we bring in rent. If we lose a major tenant, we could be out a couple hundred thousand dollars a year for a year or two or three until we found another major tenant.”

As a school, Councilor Kyle Rogers stated the state now allows charter schools and suggested the city try to attract a charter school.

Council Andrew Winglass asked if a charter school would be taxed, but City Solicitor Roger Therrieault said he doubted much, if any, of a charter school would be taxable.

Rogers said he’s looking at uses for an existing school building. Yes, the building could be used for offices or a myriad uses, Rogers said, but “I don’t think the city should own a building like that. I think the city should try to find somebody that fits that building, and I personally believe that a charter school is one of the best uses for it, even if there was a deal to be made with one of the fledgling charter schools around that are looking for some place. That also has benefits. That also attracts students to come in from other areas, other communities.”

Councilor Mari Eosco asked to take demolition of the school off the table and said, “Let’s fill it, whatever we’re going to do, and let’s have proposals come in. Let’s find a good fit. Let’s not just sit on this. Let’s put people in it and in the meanwhile, let’s try to get some rent money out of it and should we have a potential buyer, let’s deal with that as it comes.”

Giroux stated there are no potential tenants currently. Money has been budgeted to winterize the building.

Council chairman David Sinclair said he’d like to see the council have a policy it follows and a set of known questions it uses to evaluate the best disposition of a piece of sitting property, and wanted to see the council form a committee focused on developing that list of questions.

Rogers opined this would fall under the city’s Economic Development Committee.

Winglass said at one point there was once a consensus by the council that it didn’t want to own a lot of property and said, “Personally, I think it would be smart to get rid of it,” of the Huse School, and put it up for sale. He questioned if a policy could be developed that fits the range of properties, massive or tiny, that the council may be faced with finding a use for.

Sinclair said the policy he was suggesting is a process the council would follow so those interested in the property know how it works, such as starting with finding what the property is worth and deciding who it notifies of the interest to sell if that is the intent.

Winglass and Eosco voiced support of sending the matter to the Economic Development Committee, which Rogers said of late hasn’t had much to do. Eosco said she’d like to hear what the committee would recommend to the council.

Giroux said the council should definitely hash out this issue and if it goes to committee, “A good thing to think about might be to try to sell it for a while and if the right tenant comes along in the meantime, you can look at that proposal,” Giroux said.