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07/24/2003 Archived Entry: "LOT GIVE AWAY PROGRAM"

LOT GIVE AWAY PROGRAM

We moved here shortly after the Ellsworth Elementary School was built. The controversy about its location was still a hot topic of conversation long after our arrival. People lined up on both sides as they debated where that school should have been built.

At that time, the Wellington block had only the Wellington house on the property and little else. That's in the area of Forest Drive and Lincoln and 4th Street. That was the proposed site for the school but the neighbors didn’t want it there basically because of traffic and noise. Some didn't think it was located centrally enough for students living south of the river. That was back in the days when kids walked to and from school and home for lunch every noon. (It wasn't uphill both ways.) There was lots of bickering that was going on in 1952 when we arrived and it continued for years. Now, no one remembers.

The alternative site that was chosen was on a highway which was dangerous and boxed in any possibility of downtown development. It was not a good location for an elementary school. A young girl was killed crossing the street back in the '50s which brought more attention to the location.

Traffic surrounding the school has always been a serious concern. The city and school continued to have crossing guards and cross walks in the center of the block on Douglas and on 3rd Street despite the fact the children were being taught in school always to cross the street at the intersection. Finally that changed.

Now flash forward a few years when many of us on the school board believed that when it came time to replace that school, it should be located elsewhere. We had the perfect piece of ground behind the pizza hut that was made available for school use by Gertrude Kunkle. The cemetery that opened in the south part of that property was very small then. Now it is growing and will continue to grow as there isn't anything to stop it. That whole area could have been saved for future school use simply by building a ball diamond or something for school use. A small structure of any kind would have sufficed.

I think the school board back in those days showed a great deal of foresight in acquiring those lots that were contiguous to the Kunkle land so that there could be full access to the land from two sides. There was a reason for acquiring those lots. The cost of maintaining the lots was small compared to the potential savings of the overall project.

Now they are giving the lots away to anyone who wants to build a house. I'm not even going there except to say a more logical approach might be to raze some of the property about town that has been condemned, clean it up and give those lots away.

One of these days ....we hope....we will need to replace the grade school. If our town survives, it is inevitable that we will. Where are they going to put a new grade school where young students won't be faced with crossing one of the busy highways that ring our town? And at what cost to taxpayers? Has anyone even addressed this issue in the last 20 years? Where else is there ample room for such a structure? Where else is there free land?

Surely they won't make the same mistake again and put it downtown. Tell me we have learned something from this experience. Tell me that the city and school district have a master plan for expansion.