The Town of Shandaken is considering the former Phoenicia Elementary School as a new town hall, but the $1 purchase price comes with a hefty repair bill and strings attached to its use.
The town board held a special meeting February 27 to fill residents in on the details of the deal, offered by the Onteora School District after it was approached by town officials.
“There’s a few sticky points, and I know that some of that is state-required,” Shandaken supervisor Peter DiSclafani said. “The use of or any leasing of part of the building, I believe it has to have a public use. It can’t be a private entity we’re leasing part of the building to. And we’re trying to get more clarity on if that’s even 1% of the building, or if there’s any percentage.”
While the building is relatively stable for its age, one of those “sticky points” is a buried 10,000-gallon heating oil tank. While not leaking, it is 40 years old.
DiSclafani said the town does not need the entire building, so the hope is to offset the operational costs by renting the remaining space to another entity. However, the $1 transfer subjects it to state education law, which restricts it to use for the public good.
Possibilities include leasing space to the county for satellite offices or possibly some kind of low-income housing.
But anything done with the building will require significant capital improvements, as outlined by the district’s five-year capital facilities plan that listed $4.5 million in top-priority repairs.
“The asbestos abatement, for example, I’m aware of having been completed. That knocks about $100,000 off the tab. But there’s roof repairs listed to the tune of $770,000. Those have not been completed. We could go through it line by line and find out what, but I think it’s safe to say there’s still millions of dollars worth of repairs,” councilmember Elizabeth Kneissl said.
“It’s fabulous and generous of the school district to sell us the building for a dollar, but that’s not the cost of the building. The cost of the building over a three-year period is, even if the repairs come down to a million dollars left, it’s a million plus $125,000 a year. So that is why there is hesitation from the rest of the board to acquire the building.”
No strings are attached to the town’s use of the building if it’s purchased on the open market, but that price, Kneissl said, is “many hundreds of thousands of dollars” in addition to repair costs.
Shandaken has until March 18 to take the offer, which gives the district enough time to get it on the May 20 school budget and trustee election ballot.
Even if the town decides to acquire the school, more public input is in the works.
DiSclafani said the town will hold many more public hearings throughout the process.
“The [school] board would like for the campus to remain a community resource. If this does not work out, then the board will need to discuss listing the property,” Onteora superintendent Victoria McLaren said.
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