Millerton and North East take a hard look at MES

NORTH EAST — The future of the Millerton Elementary School (MES) was the issue at a joint village and town boards meeting on Thursday, March 1, at Town Hall. The village of Millerton and the town of North East are trying to decide if the former school building could provide for the needs of both municipalities without draining resources.On the table is a possible move of both town and village outposts to the 25,000-square-foot building on Route 22, just south of the main traffic light at the intersection of routes 22 and 44.The two boards ultimately voted to spend $9,100 on an energy audit by L&S Energy Services, a company certified by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), but village Trustee Yosh Schulman thought the move was hasty.“I thought there were more things that could be done before we spend that money,” Schulman said.The energy audit will seek to determine why the costs of running MES are what they are, from the electricity bill to the heating bill and the cost of cooling the building.“We didn’t want to make the call [of obtaining the building] by just sitting around and discussing it,” said Millerton Mayor John Scutieri. “We want to show our due diligence, and document what costs what. As much as people don’t want to see that old building sitting empty, we have to know if it’s too costly and if we have to walk away, or if the report comes back with great ideas of how we can utilize the building and prompt us to move forward.”The former Millerton Elementary School has not been used as a school since 2009, when the North East (Webutuck) Central School District closed the building and moved toward consolidating its campus on Haight Road. Since then the district has been trying to figure out exactly what to do with the building.But MES hasn’t been sitting vacant. The North East Community Center (NECC) uses a portion of the building for its after-school program, its summer camp as well as its GED program. There also have been talks about using the large space for artists’ lofts, galleries, recreation, businesses and more during the past few years.Both the town and village have considered using the 25,000-square foot building — with 10 large classrooms, a large auditorium with a stage, a ground floor with a gym and outdoor grounds — for a town and village hall. Both the mayor and town Supervisor John Merwin acknowledge if the town and village opt to use the space they must share it.“We could not do this by ourselves,” he said. “I really see this as a joint effort and think the rest of the board feels the same way.”Certainly the mayor does“Heavens, no. We could not do this without the town,” Scutieri said. “It really is going to be an expense even for both municipalities, which is the reason why we haven’t jumped on this in the last few years. And we need to be able to justify [the expense].”Which brings the boards back to the audit. NYSERDA is paying for 50 percent through an available grant; the town and the village are hoping to shoulder the remainder of the cost with the school district. If Webutuck does not chip in, the town and village will split the remainder of the $4,500, with the town paying 60 percent and the village 40 percent. The vote to do so was made at the March 1 meeting; only Schulman voted against the action. He explained that first and foremost there’s a question if the village even needs the extra space.“I would want a study on the current viable options for utilizing [what we have], as well as for utilizing [MES] and its extra space, including renting it out, selling excess space, etc., and what will happen to our current municipal buildings,” Schulman said, adding the study on MES should be paid for by the school district since it’s the district trying to market the building. “I thought that should be done first.”Additionally, Schulman said there’s no real pressure for the village to act right now. He also said there are positives about the current Village Hall, like its location, smack in the middle of Millerton, walkable for most village residents. He said the town, really, has more of an incentive to move. Merwin agreed, but said he thought the village would benefit as well.“There are benefits, like having both municipalities under one roof. We’d be working together a little more closely, and people could take care of their business at the same time,” he said. “There would be plenty of room and other organizations could use the space.“The negatives are that it’s an old building and there [are probably] financial constraints,” Merwin added. “We have to find out what paying for heat and maintenance would increase to, and that’s a concern with today’s budgetary problems with caps and so on.”One positive, the school district is willing to sell MES to the town and village for $1, as it believes taxpayers have already paid for the building and should not have to pay for it a second time around.Another issue that was addressed last week related to a letter sent to both the town and village from Webutuck Superintendent of Schools James Gratto in January, about the district possibly selling off a portion of the property.Merwin described the property as being “to the south of the school, by the old Grange building.” The letter from Gratto stated that the school district has “received a request to consider selling a section of the [MES] property.” He said the land in question is along the western and southern sections of the elementary school.“The [school] board is interested in your input regarding this proposed sale due to interest the village of Millerton has had previously in acquiring the parcel,” Gratto stated. The superintendent asked for the boards’ response as to whether the sale of the land would affect their interest in acquiring the building and property.The issue was discussed by both boards; they agreed it would make a difference; they wrote Gratto stating so.“We asked the school board not to sell it quite yet,” Scutieri said. “It wasn’t a desperation sale, so the school did agree if it had an impact on our decision it would hold off [on selling that portion of land], and they agreed.”