WELD — Townspeople have voted to sell the Weld Elementary School building, the land and the playground equipment to the highest bidder.
Voters last Thursday agreed in a 55-32 vote to sell the former two-room, K-5 school building, Town Clerk Carol Cochran said Monday.
The SAD 9 Board of Directors and Weld residents voted to close the school last year due to declining enrollment and expenses. Former Weld students now attend schools in Wilton and Farmington.
Weld voters decided at town meeting in March against selling the building, with a directive that a committee be formed to decide what should be done with it. Residents at the meeting thought it would be good to have a center where senior citizens and young people could go to have fun and socialize.
The committee met for 16 weeks and came up with several ideas, from using the building as a community center to a grocery store and cafe, committee Chairwoman Joan Braun said previously. Suggestion boxes were set out and an open house brought in more ideas.
“We had hoped they would retain the building,” Braun said Friday. But if voters decided to sell it, the committee had hoped it would be sold for a substantial amount of money to buy a piece of lakefront property for a town beach or to put money aside for scholarships for students.
As it went, Braun said, the minimum bid of $75,000 was removed from the warrant article.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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