Turning liabilities into assets

Two years ago, during the battle over the closing of the Narrowsburg and Delaware Valley schools in the Sullivan West School District, we took the position that the schools should be kept open—or at the very least, kept open for one more year while the options were studied more fully. That’s not what happened.

There’s a lot of water under the bridge since then, including one school board election that appeared to send a message that townspeople were suffering from buyers’ remorse and wanted the schools reopened. But that election was followed by others indicating that both students and parents have settled comfortably into the new state of affairs, and prefer to go forward. And as pointed out in a recent meeting about the future of the school district, those buildings right now are just sitting there sucking up maintenance money. It’s time to start thinking creatively about ways to use the abandoned buildings that might serve the local communities and economy.

A model for one idea for the Narrowsburg school may be found in the example of St. James Marketplace in Nebraska ( see stjamesmarketplace.com ). This retail venue, which attracts visitors from all over the state and as of 2007 boasted 60 vendors, was created by a couple of farm moms in a defunct rural community who had the bright idea of buying the abandoned school in their neighborhood and turning it into a mall. Narrowsburg starts out with exactly the same amenity, and it’s a lot closer to high-density population areas.

Yes, the idea of a mall raises a lot of economic and logistical issues. Would it just cannibalize business from other local stores? Would we have to change the zoning? Why would retailers come to a new mall in the school when the challenge of keeping retail space filled can be a daunting one? What would happen to the venue for EagleFest? And last but not least, why talk about opening a mall when we are in a deepening recession?

We realize one or more of these issues could put the kibosh on our idea. The economic downturn makes things particularly tough. However, the massive infrastructure program being discussed in Washington might be something we could tap into for converting the buildings to new purposes. We can’t be the only community that has old school buildings eating up money that could beneficially be renovated for another purpose. It’s possible any infrastructure legislation would include funds for “recycling” old public buildings—perhaps we could even encourage our representatives to introduce amendments to that effect.

Admittedly, few retailers are likely to be looking to expand to new locations any time soon. But it may be that any workable solution will have to wait until the economy bottoms. We ought to make plans in the meantime so we can act when that happens.

In response to some of the other questions raised above:

We think a viable mall would bring people to the town who would not have otherwise come, and would easily attract overflow onto Main Street, given that Narrowsburg is blessed with a main street that is not only quaint, but has a spectacular view.

Attracting retailers is a significant problem, but one strategy might be to actively recruit one or two of the well known national franchises, like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Bass or the like to open a factory outlet here that could serve as mall anchors, then attracting smaller businesses. Easier said than done, certainly—but as noted, we have time to think about it, and work out proposals that could be mailed out to potential candidates, and possibly even have some market research studies done to help give the proposals some meat.

We would suggest leaving the auditorium as an auditorium, which could be used for local events like EagleFest and also perhaps be available to the community as a public gym/games court between events. We’re sure any businesses in the building would be glad to host the peripheral events that now take place in the school during EagleFest.

The more out-of-the-way location of Delaware Valley High School makes it less suitable for a commercial solution. That makes the suggestion, mooted by some at the recent meeting, that we might be able to lease it to gas drillers, all the more tempting. However, its location right on the Delaware River is the worst possible one from the point of view of environmental contamination. We would hope that solutions that take advantage of the natural beauties and wonderful view of the location, rather than its mineral rights, can be found.

The above ideas are woefully incomplete. But it’s time to get the discussion going. If you have any ideas of how to turn these liabilities into assets, we’d love to hear them.

Also in this issue:

• Message from Monticello school super Michel

Dr. Punnybone

Mouse Pad