HOLLIS — A group of residents hopes to prevent the demolition of the town’s former high school.
The group is petitioning to ask residents at Hollis’s town meeting whether they would spend $64,000 to study the building’s needs, said Roberta Ramsdell, a member of the group.
The group will host an informational meeting at 6 p.m. today at Hollis Town Hall, then lead a tour of the former Hollis High School, known most recently as the Hollis Learning Center.
The building on River Road was home to adult and alternative education programs for School Administrative District 6 until this year, when those programs were moved to the Jack Memorial School in Buxton, said Superintendent Suzanne Lukas.
Lukas said the school department has offered the building to Hollis, but hasn’t heard back from town officials.
Selectman Don Marean said the Board of Selectmen is waiting to hear whether residents want to pay to keep the building. “It’s all about the money,” he said.
Among the needed renovations are a new sprinkler system and an elevator, Ramsdell said. She said the town’s recreation department and the Salmon Falls Library have expressed interest in using the building.
“We just don’t want it seen put to the wrecking ball,” she said. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.”
Lukas said that if the town decides not to take the building, it will remain the property of the school department. She expects the SAD 6 board to discuss the future of the building in upcoming budget deliberations. Its demolition, she said, “is under consideration.”
If the group collects about 200 signatures, or if selectmen decide to add the question to the ballot, residents will decide at their town meeting June 14 whether the town should take over the building.
Buxton residents recently undertook a similar effort to save the former Hanson School. Officials there told SAD 6 that they didn’t want to take over the building. Residents will decide whether to overturn that decision at Buxton’s town meeting in June.
Staff Writer Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at: lbridgers@mainetoday.com
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