HEATH — After the town narrowly rejected selling its former elementary school to a pot grower, two citizens’ groups have formed to research the matter more deeply before Heath votes again at its annual meeting May 11.
Marijuana company Carnegie Arch bid $250,000 to buy the former school, intending to use the building to cultivate, manufacture, and possibly sell marijuana. To permit this purchase, Heath residents must empower the Selectboard to sell the town-owned building. The measure fell just shy of the two-thirds majority required to pass at a Special Town Meeting earlier in the month, with 95 in favor and 77 opposed.
Heath has scheduled two informational meetings next month to discuss the proposed sale. They are scheduled April 6 and 13 at 10 a.m. in Community Hall. Carnegie representatives are set to attend the April 6 meeting to discuss their plans, while the two citizens’ groups will present their findings April 13.
The Selectboard requested the citizens’ groups submit a description of their goals. One group plans to examine keeping the school and relocating municipal offices there from the town and community halls, member and Heath Assistant Assessor Alice Wozniak said Thursday. The group does not have a position on the school, she said, but rather seeks to ascertain the financial impacts of keeping versus selling the building.
Wozniak added that town buildings are aging and may require updates or replacements in the future, at a cost to the town. She said keeping the relatively new, one-story, accessible, school building may be advantageous to the town.
“The other group is looking at the benefits of selling the school,” Wozniak said. “We’re looking at the fallout. We just feel it’s our due diligence to look at the numbers not just the numbers but … what are our existing needs?”
The second group plans to study the “cultural and fiscal implications of the proposed sale to Carnegie Arch,” according to its description.
Member Bob Dane, who used to sit on the Planning Board, expressed support for selling the former building, as the sale would reduce Heath’s taxes – a goal the town has had for many years.
Dane says he hopes providing more information on the sale will compel residents to vote to allow the Selectboard to sell the building. “We’re going to put together a list of people’s concerns and try to address them,” he said. “It’s a confusing issue; there’s a lot of different factors … the laws are very complicated and complex.”
While Dane supports selling the school, he witnessed the building’s construction and understands its sentimental value to the town.
“Unfortunately we had to move on,” Dane said. “You can’t be attached to brick and mortar, you’re attached to the memories.”
Contact Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.