Harding school razing set to begin

By Tim Yovich

The school’s facade will remain standing, with the back portion boxed in.

WARREN — Dismantling of Warren G. Harding High School will begin in mid-June, the senior project manager for the project says.

Dana Strizzi said after a special board of education meeting Tuesday that abatement of hazardous materials such as asbestos will begin in mid-June with actual razing of the structure starting at the end of June.

Board members approved the construction documents for the abatement and demolition, so these can get under way.

The high school at Elm Road and Atlantic Street was built in 1924 and added to in the mid-1950s. It’s being razed to make way for a new high school next to the present structure. The old school will close June 3, the end of the current school year, and the new school will open in the fall.

Strizzi said the field house will be the first structure demolished and then the school, except for the facade.

After much debate, the board decided Feb. 19 to ask its architects for a demolition plan, including the saving of the facade.

A number of people who spoke at meetings favored at least maintaining the facade, offices behind it and auditorium. Their opponents stressed that the auditorium isn’t being used, and it and the offices would take more money to maintain than has been allocated.

Even on Tuesday, some of those against razing the entire building said they believe they have a way to save it.

However, the building needs demolished to complete the road leading to the new school, Strizzi said, noting its path runs through a wing of the old school.

A board-appointed committee was formed to study what should be saved, but it ran out of time, and the committee was disbanded.

The board has about $946,000 to spend on saving the facade.

It will be retained, he explained, as a free-standing structure with the inside being boxed. Visitors will not be able to walk through the facade doors when it is completed.

Asked what would happen if the facade collapsed during the demolition work, Strizzi responded, “We have a problem.”

When voters approved a bond issue to build new school buildings, they also voted to set aside $1 million for historic preservation. The $946,000 is the balance of the original $1 million.

Saving of the facade will remain within the budget, Strizzi said.

In a related matter during the meeting, the board hired Wisconsin-based Cardinal Environmental Services for $518,110 for the abatement of hazardous materials in the Garfield, Laird and McGuffey elementary schools and Turner Middle School.

The buildings are empty and abatement will make way for their demolition.

yovich@vindy.com