Four Downtown Locations for School Board's Potential Move
By: Jennifer Lee
Updated: February 13, 2013
HAGERSTOWN, MD - Washington County Public Schools (WCPS) is on the hunt for a new central office.City officials are hoping they'll commit to downtown.
The Greater Hagerstown Committee worked on a downtown site analysis for nearly two years.
"There's multiple sites available," says Tim Henry, The Greater Hagerstown Committee. "We pinpointed four out of 12 we originally looked at."
They considered the Board of Education's needs with parking being a major one.
Their choices on location include three on Washington Street, or properties on South Potomac Street and Antietam Street.
"A brand new, beautiful library is being build right across the street from a series of condemned buildings," says Lewis Metzner, Hagerstown City Council. "So you would solve a lot of problems, and you could tie it in with that with BISFA (Barbara Ingram School for the Arts) and get rid of a lot of blight."
WCPS is one of the largest employers with about 200 people working in their central office. Officials are viewing the school system like any other major corporation, and want that foot traffic in their city.
"Maybe they need to eat, maybe they need to shop," says Henry. "They're going to use the facilities downtown and that will encourage then retailers, business people to open up."
Funding for a new central office would come from the City, County, State, the Board of Education and private partnerships. The estimated cost is between $16 million to $18 million, which is a comparable figure to rebuilding on the current location.
"If there's an opportunity downtown I'll be the first one to say that's where we ought to be," says Justin Hartings, President of the Washington County Board of Education. "But I think we owe it to the community and to the people who elected all of us to look at any opportunity out there."
Hartings says they've already decided not to rebuild on the current site.
The Greater Hagerstown Committee worked on a downtown site analysis for nearly two years.
"There's multiple sites available," says Tim Henry, The Greater Hagerstown Committee. "We pinpointed four out of 12 we originally looked at."
They considered the Board of Education's needs with parking being a major one.
Their choices on location include three on Washington Street, or properties on South Potomac Street and Antietam Street.
"A brand new, beautiful library is being build right across the street from a series of condemned buildings," says Lewis Metzner, Hagerstown City Council. "So you would solve a lot of problems, and you could tie it in with that with BISFA (Barbara Ingram School for the Arts) and get rid of a lot of blight."
WCPS is one of the largest employers with about 200 people working in their central office. Officials are viewing the school system like any other major corporation, and want that foot traffic in their city.
"Maybe they need to eat, maybe they need to shop," says Henry. "They're going to use the facilities downtown and that will encourage then retailers, business people to open up."
Funding for a new central office would come from the City, County, State, the Board of Education and private partnerships. The estimated cost is between $16 million to $18 million, which is a comparable figure to rebuilding on the current location.
"If there's an opportunity downtown I'll be the first one to say that's where we ought to be," says Justin Hartings, President of the Washington County Board of Education. "But I think we owe it to the community and to the people who elected all of us to look at any opportunity out there."
Hartings says they've already decided not to rebuild on the current site.
Comments
and where are you gonna park all those buses and you say they have 200 employees where they gonna park there cars and where you gonna put the car wash the buses use well answer that one there NO PLACE for it you IDIOTS
dave h.
February 13, 2013 at 5:50 am
