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Should Remain As Is

What price does the town of Madison place on open space in its center? A mass of cluster housing is just plain obscene!

The town should realize the green and the area to the west happen to be private property. Could you imagine if these property owners became cash strapped and followed the lead of our town fathers and developed this area? Far-fetched yet possible.

I consider both Academy and the green to be Madison’s own Central Park and should remain as is.

The eradicating of two in-town schools and the town hall to remote sites has left the center of Madison gasping for reinvention to bring the residents back to the center.

The Academy Street School stirs up many sights, sounds, smells, and memories for my family and me. Three generations of my family have attended this school. My mother in the school’s beginning, myself in the middle years, and my daughter in the final years. I would love to save Academy. My emotions say keep her, but my sensibilities say let her go.

Feasibility studies have been done in the past regarding her preservation. I have come to the conclusion the building is a mere shell of itself, a vessel whose halls contain asbestos and lead. It is little wonder we have had offers of $0 to $1 million for this site. It would cost a fortune to clean up this mess. As for repairing the old girl to her former self, this would cost $8- to $10 million, a price tag which, as a taxpayer, I have little stomach for.

My vision for Academy would be to tear her down, retain the front archway, and create an amphitheater. I would hope this would fit into the ideas of the proponents of the historic district.

Gerald Birnbaum

Madison