With work, Blue Building could be win-win situation

TO THE EDITOR:

A friend of mine told me that he had attended grammar school in what is now McMinnville City Hall. He said, ‘They want to tear it down and with their actions take my childhood memories and a piece of history from this town.’

A lady who works in the building said it is ‘moldy and has leaks everywhere.’ That the mildew and asbestos has her concerned for the health and safety of the employees.

A real estate developer said that it is ‘falling apart, outlived its usefulness and a new modern state-of-the-art building should be built in its place.’

A police officer remarked, ‘I work out of a basement.’

I haven’t lived here very long, but it seems to me that all these good people have a point and no one argument is better than the other, so it may be that the answer is they are all right, and that the course of action should be a combination of all four sides.

This, of course, would create the fifth side as follows:

1. Create a partnership between McMinnville’s city government, citizen volunteers, local nurseries, civic organizations, private investors, developers and historic societies, former students of the old school, contractors and others as required.

2. Demolish all the add-ons to the building, leaving the original Blue Building. Then restore the Blue Building to its original state as a historical museum and early classrooms.

3. On the remainder of the grounds, create a city park using the brick and any part of the demolished material as possible, walkways, band shell from the old stage, seats from the old auditorium, etc.

4. Move city hall down to the square where it needs to be. It would help bring in more people.

5. The city could then purchase the property across from Bi-Lo that used to sell mobile homes and construct a new police department, which, I might add, would be closer to the donut shop.

Memories and history preserved, health and safety taken care of, city hall helps downtown, police get a real police station that is centrally located, and citizens get a nice downtown park. It’s a win, win, win, win, win.

Clark David

Short Mountain Road

McMinnville