County Commissioners agreed last week at their regular meeting to authorize the expenditure of $60,000 for renovations to Building Number One at the old Cottage Schools. The middle building at the Cottage School will be used to house CARE, the afterschool program run through the county.
Commissioners will move forward with the City of Fallon, which currently owns the Cottage School facility for discussions regarding a property swap in exchange for the old Senior Center property located on Court and S. East Street.
County Manager Jim Barbee explained to the Commissioners and the public that the county runs several recreational programs both before and after school, during the summer, and during winter break, that are currently operated out of a small modular building at the Fairgrounds, utilizing part of the multi-purpose building when it is available.
“We saw this specifically during COVID and it’s continued, a real increase in the need for parents in the community to have options relative to this kind of programming,” he said. “Recognizing we don’t have the ability to expand that at the Fairgrounds we tried to think creatively of options we might have in the community and reached out and have created a conversation with the city. They are in favor of utilizing what is the old Cottage facility.”
The problem with running the programs out of the Fairgrounds has always been when there are other activities and events being held, children are displaced out of the area in general. The Cottage School complex on Stillwater Avenue has outside play areas, three buildings, and an admin office area.
Barbee said the heaviest lift to get the building ready is the replacement of the old steel-paned single-pane windows. The intent is not to re-purpose or tear down, but to fix up and use them for their original intent. The windows will cost roughly $30,000 to replace, and the other $30,000 will be to clean up and paint, as well as fix any plumbing issues that may have arisen from sitting unused. The funding would be used to make the building ready to move the before and after-school CARE Program to the middle building by January of 2022.
“Our intent is to engage in conversations with the city to look at the possibility of a property swap. This property for the old Senior Center property and the parking associated with it which could be used for the benefit of Oats Park” said Barbee.
He also said that the idea would be to look each fiscal year at trying to bring another building online, without creating a large financial obligation all at one time.
Chairman Pete Olsen said, “I think this a good repurposing of those buildings and definitely an improvement to our programs that have been stuck in that old space. It has been difficult for them to operate out of there.”
The money will come out of the building reserve fund, which is currently over $5 million, according to a conversation held during the previous commission meeting.
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