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09/06/2016 12:00 AMThe future of the former Academy School is, once again, up for grabs. After discussions with the Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) to transform the building into a cultural arts center broke down in July, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) is now planning to hold a series of meetings to gather public input on the future of the building.
The Academy School has been a hot button topic in town since the school was vacated more than a decade ago. Over the past three years, the town had been working with SAA to explore the idea of building a cultural arts center and the two parties had signed a letter of intent designed to facilitate further investigation to that end.
SAA walked away from the Academy School project on July 21, citing a lack of progress over recent months and a shift in business terms. The town will now have to come up with a new plan for the aging facility.
The town is planning to hold public meetings or workshops in late September or early October. First Selectman Tom Banisch said the goal of these meetings is to bring some new ideas to the table.
“What I would like to do is have a forum where people can pitch ideas that would be creative, that would bring revenue to the town, but also would bring something different into the town,” he said. “I think we have an opportunity to do something really cool. I don’t know what that is, but I have been getting lots of calls from people in the development business who would like to submit an idea and I say, ‘Come to the meetings.’”
In getting some new ideas, Banisch said he hopes people realize it is time to move forward.
“I would like to get a consensus among people in town that it is time that someone else owns Academy School,” he said. “It shouldn’t be owned by the town—we don’t have the money to fix it up and we don’t have the wherewithal to do anything worthwhile with it. It sits on what could be the largest piece of commercial property downtown.”
The exact structure and time of the meetings has yet to be determined, but Banisch said he hopes to make them as interactive as possible.
“A lot of times we have it where people sit in the audience and we just talk at them,” he said. “I would like it to be more interactive. That is why we are trying to call it a workshop as opposed to a public hearing, because we would like it to be more interactive.”
Selectman Joan Walker said the goal of the meeting is to really understand what the public wants to do with the building. Walker said at public hearings several years ago, residents expressed a strong desire to keep the building, but she said opinions could have changed.
“If the public’s opinion has changed, then we have to look at how it has changed and work with that,” she said. “We need to schedule these meetings in time when we can get the most public and honestly I think we should have more than two workshops. This is a pretty critical part of our heritage and I think we want to get as much information from the public as possible.”
Walker said at these meetings it is important the public understands the many ideas that have already been considered for Academy School over the years.
“We have been wrestling with the use of this building for a while now and there have been several commissions,” she said. “We need to take into consideration the work that has been done and not ignore that because we don’t like what we hear. We have to face the reality of it.”
Overall, Walker said it is important that everyone walk into these meetings with a clean slate.
“Literally we are starting from scratch again, so everybody has to clear their agenda boards and say, ‘OK public what is it you really want to have happen with this?’” she said.
The BOS is expected to discuss dates and final structure of the meetings at its regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 12 at 8 a.m. Visit www.madisonct.org for details.