By Bob McGarry, Haddam First Selectman
(May 1, 2024) — Given the confusion over what happened and when it happened regarding the former Haddam Elementary School, I thought I’d put together a timeline. (The documents linked in this article can be found on our website, www.haddam.org/projects/pages/all-things-hes.)
2018 – RSD17 decides to sell HES. In November, they posted a request for proposal (RFP) for Reuse/Redevelopment of the school. The sale included all 155 acres of the site. Responses were due in February 2019.
2019 – Rak Realty submitted the only proposal to RSD17. The company offered $450,000. However, the town had the right of first refusal, meaning we could buy the school if we matched Rak’s offer. That right dated back to when the town transferred our schools to the newly formed RSD17 some 50 years ago. As you might imagine, discussions between the town and RSD17 ensued and lawyers got involved so it wasn’t until May 1, 2019 that we held a public hearing to discuss purchasing the school. (During the discussions with the district, it was decided if we bought the school, RSD17 would transfer the Swan Hill acreage directly to the Haddam Land Trust.) You can see the town’s presentation recommending buying the school on the HES page on our website. The two main reasons given for buying the school were:
- We should be the ones deciding the future use of the school, not RSD17. Our interests differ from theirs. If we owned it we’d focus on uses that brought positive activity to Higganum Center. We’d have the option to sell it, lease it or keep it for municipal use.
- We’d be able to use the grounds for a community septic system to support businesses and residences in the center.
At a referendum on June 4, 2019 the town voted overwhelmingly to buy HES. The sale was closed that September.
2020 – In January, we were approached by Adelbrook, a school for special needs students, expressing an interest in renting HES. We were negotiating a five-year lease agreement when Covid derailed Adelbrook’s expansion plans. Since no one else approached us with an interest in HES, we listed it with a commercial realtor in May. While we preferred to lease it, we also listed it for sale at $2,000,000. We’ve received no serious inquiries about either leasing or buying.
From 2020 through 2021, some of the classrooms were used for storage, the gym and the multi-purpose room got some use, and there were some events held there, but overall, the building was under-utilized. We applied for two Community Challenge grants from the state to move our Senior Center there, build a sidewalk from the school to Depot Road and make some other improvements, but were denied both times.
2022 – Our luck with grants improved in August 2022 when we were awarded $480,000 for roof repairs and other site improvements. The state required us to hire an architect to write the specifications for the repairs. We issued an RFP for an architectural firm that month and hired a firm in October. Also in August, Elm Tree Communities, the developer that built the apartments on Brookes Court, inquired about converting HES to senior housing.
2023 – In April, Elm Tree Communities agreed to partner with us to apply for a Community Challenge Grant to renovate HES for affordable senior housing apartments, a senior center, community center, and some municipal offices. We submitted our grant application on May 3, 2023. On May 5th, the state approved the specifications for the roof and we issued an RFP for a contractor. We opened the roof bids on May 26th. The lowest was over $1,000,000. Before we spent that much, we wanted to be sure the community supported it. We scheduled an open house at HES on June 8th to discuss the school’s future. Did we want to keep the building, or did we want to tear down some or all of it? How should it be used? A number of ideas were suggested but there was a strong call for more information. What would renovating the school cost? What would it cost to move town offices there versus improving their current spaces? What recreational opportunities would the grounds accommodate? To answer these questions, I said we’d hire an architectural firm to do a space utilization study and another to address recreational activities. We issued the RFP for a space utilization study on June 29, 2023 and the RFP for a park/playground design on July 15th. Antinozzi Associates was selected to do the space utilization study and FHI Studio for the park/playground. You can find the resulting study and design on the HES page.
On August 10, 2023 I was notified we were awarded the $4,550,000 Community Challenge Grant we applied for. We issued an RFP for a developer on September 8th. Three developers submitted proposals. On November 2nd, I sat on a panel with Kate Anderson (Board of Selectmen and Chair, Economic Development Committee), Peter Baird (then Board of Finance), Bill Warner (Town Planner) and Leon Mularski (Zoning Enforcement Officer and licensed architect) to evaluate the proposals. We unanimously ranked the proposal from Rak Realty as the best.
2024 – The space utilization study was completed in March, 2024 and presented at a public meeting on the 27th which was recorded. The next week, April 3rd, the Rak proposal was presented at a second public meeting which also was recorded.
I know I’ve given you a lot of detail but we have an important decision to make. We can continue to pay $100,000/year to maintain what is essentially a big closet with a gym and meeting room while we decide what to do with HES, we can invest $32 million to renovate the building for town hall and other municipal uses, or we can accept the developer’s proposal and the Community Challenge Grant.
I’ll ask the Board of Selectmen to schedule a referendum on the proposal and grant in June. I know there have been many social media posts on the future of HES. Please stay informed. I recommend watching the April 9th Selectman’s Update and reading What To Do With HES? which was printed in the April 11, 2024 edition of HK-News.
