MANSFIELD — Â The Mansfield School Board was asked to close the Newman Elementary School when the Mansfield School district was under its three-year fiscal emergency.
During that time — Dec. 2013 to Dec. 2016 — the fiscal commission asked the board to stop using and demolish the building built in the early 1960’s, according to Robert Kuehnle, MCS board treasurer.
In October of 2016, the school district began demolishing the 457 Central Avenue building — slowly, but deliberately.
“We did it slowly to take the right steps and follow legal procedures,” Kuehnle said.Â
The project could have moved more quickly, if not for the wet weather, he added. The amount or precipitation in the area has made it difficult for the property’s basement to be filled in with dirt.
“If dirt were put in now, while it’s wet, the land could shift or move,” he said. “We have to pay to get the area tested to make sure the demolition process was done correctly.”Â
The heavy machinery would do more harm than good to the wet dirt, he added.
“Some people say, ‘Well, it’s 78 degrees out today, why can’t you work on it?’ but the land wasn’t OK for four-ton trucks and their wheels to tear tear up the field,” he said. “That we’d have to fix.”
Kuehnle estimated the project to be finished in 60 days, targeting a date in May. When the process is finalized, the land will go to auction to be sold to the highest bidder.
The land will be combined with the property where Simpson Middle School stood at Fourth Street and Bowman. The money from the sale will be put in to the school board’s general fund.
“Right now we have to up keep to the lots — mowing the field in the summer, making sure there are no cracks in the sidewalk,” the school board treasurer said. “That’s not a good expenditure of our dollars. That’s why we are looking to sell these properties. It’s unnecessary upkeep to mow an empty lot every two weeks.”
