Beaver officials weigh moving

Trustees are still interested in school property near the township offices.

Special to The Vindicator

NORTH LIMA — Beaver Township officials are considering hiring a local firm to explore whether it would be in the township’s best interest to move its operations nearby to the building that now houses South Range Elementary and High schools.

The trustees recently discussed paying the Hanahan Strollo architectural firm in Youngstown $12,000 to conduct a feasibility study on the matter.

Ted Lyda, trustee chairman, said findings of the study could be used to assist the township in working out an agreement with the school district should the school board put the building up for sale and the township decide to buy it.

Trustee Ron Kappler said he would prefer to hold off on hiring Strollo because he believes the township already has access to much of the information that would be contained in the feasibility study. He said he would prefer to consider the matter further before making a decision on hiring the firm.

The township has been talking about the possibility of moving its operations to the South Avenue building since the South Range Board of Education announced plans to construct a new building several years ago. The township pays Dickey Electric more than $1,300 a month to rent office space at South Range Plaza, on South Avenue Extension.

The school district is working with the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission to construct an all-grades building on a 60-acre site owned by the district at state Route 46 and Green Beaver Road. However, school officials have said they are nowhere near making a decision on what to do with the property on South Avenue.

Last week, school Superintendent Dennis Dunham said the district hasn’t decided yet whether to sell the property, keep it and maintain it or demolish the building and keep the land. He said for the time being, the district will maintain some of the land because it needs to use the football field there.

“We are nowhere near even deciding anything about the property,” he said. “We have committees that are meeting to discuss each area of the building project, and the building disposition committee that will address that matter hasn’t even met yet. It’s something that remains uncertain, and any speculation about it now is premature. It’s quite a ways down the road at this point.”