It’s “Lights Out” for FCHS After Tomorrow’s Auction
Utilities are slated to be cut off at the former Ford City High School as soon as October 10th.
by David Croyle
ASD Director of Facilities & Property Services Bill Henley said utilities to the former Ford City High School building will be cut off before winter weather sets in.
Henley said it would not be possible to heat the building because of heating equipment failure.
“One reason we can’t open Ford City or keep things going is we have a return heating line that is broke. It’s a return line that goes from the boiler out into the building then returns the water back into the boiler to reheat it. The cost to re-fix that it tremendous. And it is not beneficial to the District to go ahead and fix that. So we’re just going to cut all the utilities off, winterize the building, blow all the water out of the lines so we don’t get any more damage.”
He said Kittanning Junior High building is also slated for disconnection of utilities.
Henley said that there would only be monitoring for fire once utilities were disconnected.
“Security wise – we will chain the doors closed and put the security bars on the doors. Will we have security as far as security cameras? No, we will not have that. We may keep the fire alarm system on just in case there is a fire.”
Henley said there is a preliminary date of October 10 for final closure of the building.
Meanwhile, Henley said they are expecting a large crowd for Saturday’s auction.
“We’re anticipating 250-300 people in that building on Saturday. We had the preview on Wednesday. We’ve had 197 people already register for the auction. My secretary has already received 25-30 additional calls.”
He said most of the items for sale will be from the three closed schools.
“We closed three buildings and consolidated them into one, so naturally we don’t need three metal shops, three art rooms, and three auditoriums. So we took the best of what we had available and we took it to the new school. Then I opened it up to all the other schools to do a walk-through. So all schools had an opportunity to take out of there what they wanted. Anything that was left, the auctioneers have already inventoried.”
Henley said that those who have not registered in advance may do so at the door on Saturday. There is no cost to register, but does require several forms to be signed that holds the school district and auctioneer harmless in the event of an incident.
ASD will receive seventy-five cents for every dollar that is sold during the auction.
Local News, Armstrong School District | David Croyle September 11, 2015
By Snarf, September 11, 2015 @ 9:06 AM
How long will this sit vacant until it meets the wrecking ball? I went to Ford City for a short time, and I understand when people don’t want to see their old schools go, especially when filled with memories, but what exactly can be done with this building, especially with it’s age? The school district sure as heck can’t give the building to Ford City, we’ve all seen what happens there.
By lowfatlowcarbnosugarcheesecake, September 11, 2015 @ 11:05 PM
You do realize the cost of tearing down a school building right? Or are you just that hell bent on making this consolidation work that you don’t care about the common tax payer!
By Jerri, September 11, 2015 @ 11:37 PM
@Snarf. Are you kidding? You clearly have no clue as to how much it costs to tear down a building like Ford City High School. The last time it was brought up at a school board meeting, it was estimated at one million. This is a broke school district or did you forget that. After all, we still need a minimum of ten million for Heinz Field north and maybe even some other things…like buying more books so kids don’t have to share. Yes, that is happening right now at the new school. With a zero fund balance we are what most school district financial consultants would call a high risk school district. No fiscally responsible school board would have used the fund balance instead of raising taxes to balance their budget.
Sure it was great for us taxpayers not to have taxes raised this year. Who doesn’t like that? And it is great PR for the school board to say they didn’t have to raise taxes the year the new school was built. Never mind that they’ve raused them every year since they got elected in 2011 and they most definitely will next year. They pulled the same trick when they renovated West Hills. They conveniently forget to tell everyone they raised taxes 8 mils in the two consecutive years before the building was done. However, emptying the fund balance is a temporary solution that causes problems in the future. They have no cushion for any unexpected emergencies and no wiggle room for future budgets. But strangely they continue to spend. We taxpayers should be questioning this board about that every time they are spending. We also should be on this board to find a way to unload or sell these buildings. Simply destroying them is the most expensive option of all.