Emotional public forum precedes approval of middle school demolition

        
The Benton Carroll Salem School District Board of Education held a public input meeting on Feb. 27 inside the auditorium of Oak Harbor High School, where residents both for and against the demolition of the old Oak Harbor middle school building spoke their minds.
       
The meeting was spurred on by a lawsuit from Julie Cox, an Oak Harbor resident and a member of the Save our School group, who was able to temporarily halt the demolition process with a preliminary injunction. On Feb. 24, the Ottawa County Court of Common Pleas ruled that the injunction would become moot at midnight on Feb. 27 following the Board of Education vote.
       
Thus, the last ditch effort to save the school took place inside the auditorium and featured 14 people who shared their thoughts. Each person was given five minutes to speak with a maximum time for public participation capped at 90 minutes, although the audience portion took just under 70 minutes. Per the rules, there was no back-and-forth between the speakers and the board members during each person’s time.
       
Following that, board members shared their personal thoughts on the issue, which ultimately ended in a unanimous vote to “stay the course” with the demolition plans, which will be done by June 30 with the help of a $500,000 grant from the Ottawa County Land Bank.
       
Of the 14 people who spoke, seven spoke in favor of the board moving forward in the demolition process, while six spoke out against it, including Cox. The other speaker aside from those 13 was Ohio State Representative Josh Williams, who referred the board to two statutes he said they were in violation of.
       
Williams claimed that the school district does not have sole discretion to dispose of the school building.
       
“I'm here to tell you that you can't by state law,” he said. “By state law, you must abide by the state statutes that we have written. The state of Ohio is watching, and if you improperly dispose of a school building, we will be watching, and we're in the budget cycle where we can change statutes very easily.”
       
Williams, who didn’t appear to stick around after his speech, seemed to infer that a reason for the board of education to not want to put the building up for bid is that of the threat of a charter school coming in.
       
“We understand that school districts do not want to lose students to charter schools,” he said. “I'm a former charter school president, but that is why we support school choice here in the state of Ohio. We understand that school districts do not want to transfer buildings to charter schools, but by state law, you're required to put it up for bid.”
       
The board responded to that during their later portion, however.
       
“We do have lawyers also. We follow the law, we ask what is right, we ask how to do it, and we proceed from there. Everything that we have done has been above board, asked by lawyers and approved by us. It's very hard sitting on a board of education when a community is divided on a certain thing. You never want to see that. I was elected to the board, you know, a couple of times and when the going gets tough, we have to stay the course.”
       
One of the main issues some of the citizens had against the demolition was that some citizens claim to have or have had prospective buyers of the old school denied potential purchase ability, but the board says otherwise … that there has been no viable investors.
       
Those protesting the demolition also said that the board hasn’t been transparent during the nearly 10-year process.
       
Others, however, like Bill Poiry supported the board, its transparency and the need for the school to come down.
       
“Ideally all is rosy and shiny with a bright future for a potential buyer, but that is far from typical,” Poiry said. “What happens if the new occupant’s business fails? Most do. What's next? Bankruptcy? Then what? The school district would no longer be involved. Any grants or current funding for demolition would no longer exist.
       
“Costs for demolition would continue to rise. Would the village residents have to fund a demo five years from now, ten years from now? How much would that cost the village and its residents? Would the building sit empty and decay away due to the cost of demoing a building? Who would take over the property? What would they do with it?
       
“Take all the valuable metal out and leave an empty shell behind? Would it be like Rocky Ridge Elementary? I have seen some on social media take a moral high ground, and I've heard it here tonight already, on saving a piece of history. While saving the right pieces of history is for sure a positive, saving the wrong piece can be devastating to a community like Oak Harbor.
       
“There is no moral high ground in creating the risk of a building the size of a middle school potentially left to decay over years and unleashing it for the residents of Oak Harbor to deal with. It is shameful to use that tactic to drive emotions of others and diminish the opinions of others. The risk of allowing the building to look like Rocky Ridge Elementary is far too great of a risk for the village of Oak Harbor. School board, please do not Rocky Ridge Oak Harbor.”
       
From the board’s perspective, several of them spoke of how tough the decision was, but ultimately they couldn’t pass up the chance at losing the $500,000 grant, which would go away if the building isn’t down by June 30.
       
“Yes, grants are tax dollars, I understand that, but they're not local tax dollars,” board member Aaron Avery said. “We have an opportunity to take care of the costs. The opportunity to have this grant will not present itself again. I think to assume that would be foolish. It would be risky at best and completely foolish at worst.
       
“People are free to disagree with me. Clearly, there are two sides to this issue. We can disagree. You can even be angry about it. I would be angry about it if it didn't go my way and I was a citizen. I get that. That's your right. I respect your passion for the community, but after careful consideration and all that we've been through, I think the facts speak for themselves.”
       
In terms of the future of the property, Oak Harbor mayor Quinton Babcock said that will come down to the school board and the input of the community as the city and the board are two separate entities.
       
“This has been something that we've had a lot of residents interested in, and we've entertained a lot of conversations about it,” he said. “But it's sort of over in the school board's camp.
       
“I think it's important for the community to have the opportunity to provide feedback on what that space should become … we’re prepared to offer some sort of educated thoughts on the matter, but truly, you know, the school board's gonna know what's best for that property in conjunction with community input.”
       
The debate will continue over time, but for now, after a unanimous vote of the board, demolition of the Oak Harbor Middle School will happen by June 30.
       
The next regular board meeting is Tuesday, March 25 at 4:45 p.m.