(Lake Park)– The future of the old Harris-Lake Park elementary school building remains uncertain. Portions of the building were heavily damaged in early January when a boiler malfunctioned, sending steam through some of the rooms. Superintendent Mike Thompson says necessary repairs have since been made, bringing it back pretty much to where it was prior to the incident…
“All of the asbestos abatement is done, all the clean up is done, we’re providing temporary heat in the facility until we’re at a point in the spring where hopefully we won’t have to do that any more. The attention moving forward is what is from the beginning: either that building will be demolished or we’ll sell it to a private party.”
Thompson says there has been some interest in the building…
“We’ve given tours to a few different companies that are interested in it, one in particular that’s looked at it that could possibly turn it into housing, but we’re a ways away from that becoming a reality but they are working with the city right now on some tax incentives and we’ll see where that goes.”
Thompson adds they do have a timeline in place as to when a final decision on the building’s fate will be made…
“Probably no more than a few months. We’ll definitely know by early summer what’s going to happen to it. We owe it to our voters to make sure one of two things happen: either we bring the building down and the land gets developed by the city or someone with a creative plan and design takes it over and does something neat for the city of Lake Park.”
The building has seen several renovations and additions over the years, with the main part of the structure dating back to the 1950’s.
