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Historic Applegate School is for sale, cheap By Damian Mann APPLEGATE � For sale: Historic brick schoolhouse that needs some TLC. $1. Built in 1910, this local landmark with its distinctive bell tower could be sold for a token sum � if the right buyer comes along and agrees to undertake an estimated $1 million in major renovations. Students moved into three portable classrooms last year after the old schoolhouse was deemed structurally unsafe by engineers hired by the Three Rivers School District. Now school officials have decided to ask the community what it wants to do with the building at a public forum at 6:30 tonight at the Applegate Elementary School. The district is willing to wheel and deal to find some way to get the building renovated. "There have been times when public agencies have sold something like this for a $1," said Superintendent Chuck Barker. But the caveat would be that the buyer would not only have to complete the renovation, but have a business or organization that could coexist with adjacent Applegate Elementary School. Barker said that if all the district�s conditions are met, the two-story building could be sold for a token sum of say $1 or $10. School board chairman Mike Kohn said that sort of arrangement "makes sense to me, as long it doesn�t affect negatively on the rest of the school." Both school officials said any final decision on the sale would have to be made by the full school board. Kohn said his inclination is to do whatever the community wants with the building. "If the community wanted to tear it down and use bricks to pave the school grounds, then we could do that as well," he said. Kohn said the district has no plans to tear the building down. But if the district did consider razing the structure in the future, Barker said, that decision would be made after public notification and discussion. "We want to respect the historical significance of the building," he said. Principal Jan Figoni said her school uses the building for storage and will continue its maintenance until the community decides what to do. "There is no urgency to do anything," she said. Gazing out her office window, Figoni said the old schoolhouse still looks great, despite a recent minor vandalism. "The bell tower is very much a community landmark. Up until last year we rang it every day." But school officials discovered the mortar was deteriorating and the building posed a threat to children during an earthquake. "It would tumble like a house in a third-world country," she said. Figoni and other school officials are hoping that a local group applies for a grant to renovate the building, perhaps turning it into a community or senior center. Myrtle Krouse, of the Applegate Valley Historical Society, said the district�s decision to hold the meeting is premature. She said it would be some time before the society could work on a grant and it was not prepared to make any public comments. "The people who set that meeting up caught us off-guard," she said. The district�s contention that an earthquake poses a threat to the schoolhouse doesn�t hold true for Krouse. "I�ve been here 70 years and we haven�t had one yet," she said. "When the earthquake knocks it down, I�ll get in there and clean up the rubble," she joked. Krouse said the Applegate area needs to do everything it can to preserve the building. "I know the community doesn�t want to tear it down." Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.