Residents of Edgewood, New Mexico, are fighting to keep an abandoned elementary school standing, even though the school district wants to tear it down.
Edgewood Elementary School closed to students in 2013 and has been used off and on by different organizations. But now the school district has plans to demolish it.
“All of those people who utilize that facility were told once: (If) this building starts costing the district money to maintain, we’re no longer going to be able to do that because we have all the other facilities that we have students in that we need to maintain,” Teresa Salazar, superintendent of Moriarty-Edgewood School District (MESD) told KRQE News. “It would cost as much to put a new roof on it, which it needs, than to tear it down.”
Notice was given in June to clear the facility for demolition. That upset many residents who planned to utilize the building. Sherry Abraham, a former town councilor, is among those opposed to tearing down the former school.
“They promised us to be able to use it for our community, even though it wouldn’t be a school anymore,” Abraham told KRQE News.
The town wants the district to either sell or donate the building to them. But Salazar said there was no promise of continued use.
“That is prime property that we’re going to be building a state-of-the-art elementary school in the future,” she said, according to KRQE News. “So we do not want to be selling that, giving that to any other entity. Basically, it’s not for sale. The property is not for sale.”
Communication between opposing sides on the issue has broken down after a threat of a lawsuit was lodged during a recent meeting.
“We have reached out in so many ways, and they’ve absolutely stonewalled us,” Jerry Powers, town commissioner of Edgewood, told KRQE News. “Won’t talk about it. They seemed offended by the idea that Edgewood wanted to have some input into what happens with this building, even though it was promised to us by the board district/school board in order to use it for our community events.”
“There was never a promise, and they keep saying there was a promise,” Salazar insisted.
