Fate of 1908 school still in limbo

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Smyth County and town of Marion officials gathered over deli sandwiches Monday to talk about the state of affairs surrounding the fate of the 1908 school building on Strother Street.
The county, according to supervisor Charlie Clark, needed to gauge the town’s level of commitment to renovation of the old school for possible community uses.
That commitment is one of a growing number of pieces in a puzzle that, once assembled, would create for school-reuse proponents a picture of a renovated and well-used historic building.
Another piece on the table is a parking deck that would spare the county-owned school building whose destruction would create about 60 parking spaces, relieving a downtown parking shortage and satisfying a Virginia Supreme Court mandate for parking near the courthouse.
A piece added to the puzzle this summer is a mandate by local judges that a suitable location be found for the courts while the courthouse is under renovation and new construction. Clark said the judges have said they “can’t operate courts in a construction zone. We’ve got to find outside space.”
That space could come in the form of a new building constructed as a temporary location for the courts and associated clerks, if an existing building cannot be found to meet the judges’ requirements, Clark said.
Consideration has been given to renovating and adding on to the courthouse in phases, moving courts, clerks and constitutional offices around in the building while work proceeds.
County Engineer Scott Simpson said moving all courts and offices out of the courthouse during the project will lower costs of the project and shorten its duration.
The meeting Monday was called by the county as it faces a coming demand by the state court to produce a signed order showing cooperation by the county and town and a timetable for the courthouse renovation – the central issue around which the parking garage, old school, and temporary court space issue revolve—that would become binding, Clark explained.
For its part, the town is awaiting word on a $250,000 grant expected to be awarded by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. The town would use the money to buy the old school building from the county.
Todd Christiansen of DHCD met with town officials in July and was supportive of an idea for an Appalachian School of Music and Art, proposed by entrepreneur Joe Ellis.
Christiansen said the school could be linked with ‘Round the Mountain, the growing regional artisans’ network and driving tours, and with Abingdon’s “Heartwood” that DHCD granted $4 million for a facility similar to Tamarack at Beckley, W.Va. 
While Christiansen hinted the town would likely be successful in securing the $250,000 grant, the Marion and Smyth officials recognize nothing is certain in a state facing a deficit that reportedly could grow an additional $3 billion.
“We can’t commit $250,000 with state cuts coming,” Marion council member Jim Gates said.
The town and county have had a working agreement to cooperate in the construction of a parking garage that would benefit both municipalities. Last summer the Marion Downtown Revitalization Association passed a resolution asking the county to preserve the building, and the town followed suit. Later last year, the town backed its request with money, offering the county $500,000 toward construction of the parking deck whose cost then was estimated by its architect, Bill Huber, at $1.1 million.
Clark asked the Marion leaders if they could commit to the parking garage since they cannot commit to the school building. Marion Town Council member Ken Heath said commitment to the parking deck would be contingent on the constitutional offices now in the courthouse remaining in the downtown area of Marion.
“If the offices are not downtown, there’s less need for parking,” Heath said.
That project, though, Heath said, could be undone before it starts if the ground beneath the sloping parking lot between Strother and Court streets behind the Lincoln Theatre is found through core sampling to be unsuitable for construction of a parking decke.
“If the deck can’t be built, the school has to come down,” Simpson said.
For all its cordial informality, with participants sipping sodas, passing a tray of sandwiches and a couple of boxes of cookies, Monday’s meeting felt weighed down by the gravity of issues tied to the pieces of the puzzle the leaders attending seek to solve. The county is facing at least $24 million in courthouse renovation and expansion costs and the state courts final requirements for the project. To those concerns are added the old school, parking deck and interim court facility uncertainties.
“What the board [of supervisors] doesn’t want is a $3 million garage and the old school,” Clark said of the county’s position. “If the town wants the school, the board wants you to have it. The school is worth about a million dollars to the county,” as parking developed in its place would reduce the parking deck from three levels to two.
Gates said at some point the matter could come down to the county’s asking whether someone in the community would be willing to pay $500,000 for the old school.
Heath said he would try to get an answer from DHCD about the grant to present to the Marion council meeting Monday. The supervisors will have the results of that discussion when they meet Oct. 14.