The 1941 Historic Red Brick School House
in
St. Germain Wisconsin 54558
This is what the original Red Brick School House used to look like. A Colonial front with seven foot high six pane glass doors, a half circle glass paned oculus all gracefully standing between two twelve pane glass windows.
The interior class rooms were filled with the outside light from five thirty-two glass paned windows on each side of the building. Built by volunteers just before World War Two.
However, due to some ill advised town school board members, in order to save on energy consumption, those beautiful windows and front facade have been bricked up, and covered with mismatched brickwork making the new look hideous.
Then in 1965 as the Town of St. Germain outgrew this period two room structure the school board made another decision, and that was to add a new addition onto the back of the 1941 portion of the building to add more classrooms. However, the town kept growing still and the school was still too small so the school board decided to abandon that building and built a new school about a quarter mile away.
And what happened to the 1941 school?
The Town of St. Germain decided to use the school as the town offices. This lasted until the Town built a new community center. Then they moved the town offices over there and left the 1941 portion and the 1965 addition to the Red Brick School House to rot and decay.
However, there were many people of the town who did not want to see that happen. They raised money to have things repaired, and kept the building in pretty good shape. The town did place a new roof onto the 1941 portion of the structure, after much prodding by the town folks. But back in 2004 or so, the Town Board decided it was too costly to heat the whole building, that was not used, and they severed all of the heat from the 1965 addition portion of the building.
When the heating system needed replacing, the supporters of keeping the school intact paid for and had the heating system replaced with a new boiler. And many, many efforts have been tried, with much failure, to restore the building to its originality by the people, and the Town Board was having none of it.
So why is it still here? It is here because according to the Laws of the State of Wisconsin, in Chapter 60.10, real property can only be disposed of with a majority of the electors of the town allow it. This is what the Town Boards have been unable to achieve year after year, i.e. getting the electors to give the Town permission to get rid of it and tear it down.
So where are we now?
Right now there is a push to tear it down again, and also tear down the current community center and town offices. Why would we want to do that? Because there are some on the current Town Board that believe by building a brand new building, that could house the Town Offices and also contain meeting space, that they could lure outside organizations to the town and use it as a convention center. However, there is not one person currently serving on the Town Board that has ever planned or implemented anything of this nature. AND........They want to have the taxpayers pay for their folly to the tune of Four Million Dollars. A hefty sum for a town of only 2100 residents.
According to some estimates, it would cost the taxpayers roughly $500,000.00 to completely remodel the 1941 portion of the red brick school house, and tear down the 1965 portion of the same building.
At the same time it could cost just as much to remove the building. You cannot simply tear down the building and place the debris in a landfill due to the EPA requirements for a building containing asbestos. And any contractor hired for demolition would have to meet, and obtain the proper EPA licenses required for abatement, and this is what will drive the costs upward.
But this information seems to escape the existing Town Board and their "consultants", as there is no mention of abatement in any of their reports. If they know about it, (hazardous materials) they are not telling the people who live here. This has been mentioned time and time again in previous engineering reports for this building.
However, due to asbestos being in the flooring of the 1941 portion of the building in the form of vinyl asbestos tile, the cost to tear down the building completely could also be around $500,000. Now you might say, if the 1941 building were to be reused wouldn't you have to remove that asbestos tile anyway? The answer is NO. The proper remedy is to cover any asbestos floor tile with a suitable floor covering material. This will render the danger non-exhistant, and longer a problem.
Anyone who has ever gone to, planned, or attended any major conventions realize that the key thing is getting conventioneers to the location, and housing them. St. Germain does not have an airport, and the Eagle River, Rhinelander, Minocqua airports are too small to support any major airline with regular flights from all over the country. Additionally, convention attendees do not want to have to drive hours to get to the convention site. If they are going to have to stay overnight to attend a convention, they want to be on the premises at the actual convention location. This is impossible with a community owned facility such as is planned.
The proposed new facility has the capability to accommodate well over three hundred guests. However there will never be enough parking to accommodate three hundred automobiles. So why does the town seem to think we need this? When all we really need are town offices, some meeting rooms for the community, and some recreation facilities such as a gym, small kitchen and workout room. After all, it is a "Community Center" not a Convention Center.
The remodeling of the existing 1941 portion of the Red Brick School House has ample space for the storage of the town records in the lower level. Fireproof filing systems are readily available and could be of the same type used in the Vilas County Clerks offices today. The Red Brick School House building can accommodate offices for the Town Chairman, Town Treasurer, and Town Clerk, and an Administrative Assistant on a part time bases in order to allow for standard Town office hours.
Presently if you need a building permit or other, you have to go to the Town Shop and chase down that person, if you know where the town shop even is. If you need to get something from the Town Treasurer or pay some taxes, you have to chase down that person at their home or elsewhere. If you need to talk to the Town Chairman, you have to go to their place of business. If you want to apply for some licenses or other thing that comes under the Town Clerk's duties you have to chase him down at his home or place of business. Wouldn't it be nice to know that you would be able to get anything done at the Town offices during the posted hours. ONE STOP SHOPPING!
The 1941 portion of the Red Brick School House can accommodate all of this.
BUT THE BATHROOMS ARE NOT ADA, Handicapped people cannot get into the building, I don't like going there!
You will hear this from those folks who want the building torn down. They have NO clue as to what the requirements are for an ADA bathroom or ADA accessibility. The Town Board over the years have made statements to this affect time and time again. The have not invested one minute of time on studying the requirements to make things ADA compliant. They have relied on the misinformation of others.
There is a plan to address all of this. It is called Option #3. It was designed by the Town Boards own consultants and it was the consultants first recommendation that the Town Board completely ignored. It proposes to tear down the 1965 portion of the building, add an ADA compliant elevator, build a new community center, have ADA compliant bathrooms accessible by both buildings. Everything that those who want a new building, and those who want to keep the old building could ask for. AND THE CONSULTANTS THAT DID THE INVESTIGATION AND THE FINAL REPORT AND FIGURED OUT THE EXPENSES, AND RECOMMENDED TO THE TOWN THAT THIS IS THEIR BEST CHOICE WAS HIRED BY THE CURRENT TOWN BOARD.
SO WHY ARE THEY NOT LISTENING TO THEIR OWN CONSULTANTS? THE PLAN THAT MAKES EVERYONE IN THE TOWN HAPPY?
YOU TELL ME?
WHO WILL BE THE BENEFICIARY OF THE END RESULTS BEING PROMOTED, AND RECOMMENDED BY THE CURRENT TOWN BOARD?
WHY ARE THEY CHOOSING TO RAISE YOUR TAXES AND MISLEADING YOU INTO THINKING IT'S AN INSIGNIFICANT AMOUNT? WHEN IN FACT YOUR TOWN PORTION OF YOUR PROPERTY TAX WILL RISE UP TO 40% MORE THAN WHAT IT IS NOW.
YOU TELL ME, I DO NOT WANT MY TAXES INCREASED ONE DIME, BUT I AM IN FAVOR OF OPTION THREE! THAT WE CAN ALL LIVE WITH!
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