NIVERVILLE–Kinderhook Town Supervisor Pat Grattan said last week that a closing date of December 7 has been set for the town and the Village of Valatie to take ownership of the Martin H. Glynn School building on Church Street in the village.
The Glynn School Committee met Thursday, November 29 to discuss the closing and the plans for the empty building. Along with Mr. Grattan, Valatie Mayor Gary Strevell, Town Board member Patsy Leader and former board member Peter Bujanow attended the meeting.
The municipalities plan to move their offices to the old school, which the Ichabod Crane Central School District closed last year due to declining enrollment. At the annual school budget vote last May, residents approved the sale of the school building to the town and village for $1. The village is also taking position of the park across the street from the school, which the school district has been leasing.
Mr. Grattan said the town and village would share the cost of heating and maintenance on any shared spaces in the building. The town will pay for snow removal and lawn care. The village is providing water and sewer.
Each municipality will also have rooms exclusively for its own use, for village and town offices; heating and maintenance costs for those spaces will be assigned to the municipality using them.
“We’ll have some rooms for community use,” said Mr. Grattan.
Ms. Leader said the Boy Scouts have asked to use one classroom for meetings, and the local kids’ basketball league would like to use the gym. Tim Ragosta, from the CYO basketball program, said at Thursday night’s meeting that the CYO has raised money to do work on the gym floor. Mr. Grattan said they could discuss doing that work as soon as the town has the title to the property.
The school district has also asked for the use of two rooms, possibly for office space in the future. Mr. Grattan said the rooms would not be left empty but would be available for district use if it needs them. The town and village plan to leave the playground equipment intact. The school district moved the playground from the Martin Van Buren School when that building in the Village of Kinderhook was closed at the end of the last school year. The equipment was moved to the Middle School at the main campus on Route 9.
The third floor of the building will be empty for the time being, though the municipalities have looked for tenants. As of now, the town and village will share the space with the Town Court, which will be on the ground level, and a Sheriff’s Office substation, which will move there from its present location at the American Legion Hall on Main Street, Valatie.
The first thing the committee needs to deal with after the closing is the phone and Internet service, which Mr. Grattan says the municipalities will share. He said that will yield a savings for the town. “Right now we pay 16 phone bills,” the supervisor said.
The Town Board also plans to put the Town Hall in Niverville up for sale for $160,000.
Mayor Strevell said the village will look for a buyer for the Village Hall on Main Street, but he has not had it appraised yet.
“We are going to have to go into it slowly,” said Mr. Grattan of the move. “It’s going to be a little more than we have now.”
But he and the mayor pointed out that the school building has windows and a heating system that are energy efficient, and he suggested there would be savings derived from sharing the space.
To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com.
