MADISON — The town is moving ahead with plans to consolidate the amount of property and buildings it maintains with a decision to demolish a vacant school on Weston Avenue and a 100-year-old former general store in East Madison.
On Monday selectmen awarded a bid for the demolition of the two buildings at a total cost of $98,724 to David P. Trask & Son Inc. of Hudson. It passed unanimously at a regular meeting that also included the appointment of a former school board chairman to a one-year position on the board of directors for School Administrative District 59.
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The demolition should take place within the next few weeks, according to Town Manager Dana Berry.
“The town wants to minimize expenses,” said Berry. “Having land there we decided is the best thing to do. We don’t have to upkeep a building and have it deteriorate like the old junior high did.”
The Weston Avenue school was acquired from SAD 59 within the last year, according to Berry. Officials in the district voted in February 2012 to move administrative offices from the Weston Avenue building, which has been closed to school classes for years, to Madison Area Junior High School on Main Street.
The Mill Pond General Store closed in February 2010 after more than 100 years in business. It was the only retail store in East Madison at the time and was acquired by the town after the property owner could no longer pay taxes, said Berry.
In January 2013, the board voted to demolish the former Madison Junior High School on Main Street, and the space has since been turned into a playground and park that is home to a new farmer’s market.
Although the cost to keep the two buildings alive has been “minimal” in the last year, according to Berry, he said officials are worried that the cost of upkeep could get expensive, as it did with the junior high, which remained standing for 10 years though not in use.
Also at Monday’s meeting the board appointed Troy Emery to a one-year position on the board of directors of School Administrative District 59. In June residents voted to change the number of board members from six to seven, with a one-year interim position to be appointed by the board of selectmen to serve until general elections in June 2015.
The appointment was approved 3-0 with Selectmen Michael Edgerly and Al Veneziano abstaining.
Emery served as the board’s chairman before losing in a three-way race for two seats in June.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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