School district in Ohio approves 3 demolition projects

The board of education of Columbus Schools, the public school district in Ohio’s capital city, reportedly has voted to approve demolishing three vacant buildings over the course of the next several months.

The buildings to be taken down include one former elementary school, a former middle school and a vacant “annex” building currently situated next to another school, according to a report by Cole Behrens of the Columbus Dispatch.

Classes at the former Wedgewood Middle School were moved to a new, adjacent building in 2008. According to an article on the website of the Westside Messenger, the previous, now vacant (and slated for demolition) building measures slightly less than 70,000 square feet in floor space.

Information posted to the Columbus Metropolitan Library website indicates the former Deshler Elementary school, another site targeted for demolition, opened in 1953 with additions made in 1955 and 1958. The school closed in 2010, according to the library.

The third structure approved for demolition is referred to by the Dispatch as the Franklin Annex, with an accompanying photo showing a room that has suffered “heavy water damage.”

According to the newspaper, demolition work at all three sites could begin by early next year, pending the results of assessments for hazardous materials such as for asbestos and lead. The Dispatch says the combined demolition costs currently are being estimated by Columbus Schools as “about $3.5 million.”

A Columbus Schools board member is cited by the newspaper as saying redevelopment plans at the sites have not yet been determined, and the purview of the initial approval is only for demolition.

The same article quotes the board member, Jennifer Adair, as saying the district might bring forward another batch of properties for consideration of demolition in the near future. “We have some other properties in just as bad of a condition,” said Adair.

One of those potential projects could be for the school board’s current home, known as the Columbus Education Center. Next month, the board may receive a committee recommendation for either the redevelopment or sale of the building, says the Dispatch.

That 92,000-square-foot downtown Columbus building was constructed in 1961, according to the Columbus Metropolitan Library, replacing an older building that had served initially as a school and then as school district headquarters.