The Greene County School Board recently approved to release a company from a contract to demolish a structure in Jefferson.

At their April meeting, the Board unanimously voted to delay the demolition of the former middle school gym by paying back the contractor Murphy Construction its bid bond amount of $9,849. Superintendent Brett Abbotts tells Raccoon Valley Radio the decision was made due to the ongoing application process for a project to receive state historical tax credits to convert the three-story portion into apartments.

“So the stipulations for the state historical tax credits on that whole project would be conducive of the physical structure itself not being altered from an exterior lens for five years after substantial completion of a project. So we could be looking anywhere from 7-10 years or so down the road before we would even be able to remove that gym.” 

Abbotts says when and if the time came to demolish the gym, the Board would have to re-bid it. He adds in the meantime there is the possibility of someone wanting to use that facility could, but the feasibility to bring the facility up to code and for it to be usable would be a significant financial undertaking. 

The Board sold the middle school property to NGA Ventures and developer Nate Adams in February of 2021 for the apartment conversion project. However, the project needs the state historical tax credits in order for the project to get off the ground, as that portion represents a large amount of funding that is needed.