The North School hasn’t been good for much since it closed its doors in 2009 but it’s not good for nothing.
The underused property just outside North Abington Center is being transformed into a temporary storage yard for the Department of Public Works while the new $38.5 million joint fire station and public works facility is built.
“We’re beginning to bring some of our stuff over there, some of our piles and hard stock,” said Public Works Director John Stone. “Eventually we’re going to be storing our vehicles over there for some time.”
Work has already started on the first phase of the fire station/public works project. Crews are building the new east entry road, which will lead up to a new above-ground fueling station for municipal vehicles and, a little further up the hill, a new salt storage shed.
Bids for Phase 2, which is the remaining pieces of the project, went out this week, with work scheduled to start in late spring or early summer.
The project will involve demolishing the existing public works buildings, except for the vehicle maintenance building, building new facilities in the rear corner of the property, and constructing a new central fire station along Central Street.
The project is expected to take about 18-20 months to complete. During that time, the public works yard needs to be relocated, Stone said.
The public works yard holds small stockpiles of commonly needed materials such as topsoil, stone, sand, piping, manhole castings, granite curbing, cinderblocks, and more. Plus there’s the department’s fleet of equipment and vehicles including dump trucks, backhoes, and street sweepers, and plow blades. In addition, there’s also parks-related equipment such as lawnmowers and trimmers, as well as the Island Grove docks.
Crews this week could be seen moving piles of fill into the corner where the old youth baseball field was and installing a temporary fence around the perimeter. Six new Conex boxes will be placed on the property to help store equipment, with keys and personal gear stored in a locked trailer.
Stone said while the site isn’t ideal, there wasn’t any other town-owned land they could move to. “It’s a cheap option, it doesn’t cost the town anything. We just always make do with what we have,” he said.
The school property will not be used to store hazardous materials or salt, Stone said. The town’s supply of salt will be moved directly from the current sheds to the new shed upon completion of the project’s first phase.
Neighboring residents were notified a few weeks ago that the triangular property would be converted temporarily into a public works yard.
Barbara Rae, who lives on Birch Street, said she hasn’t had any concerns so far.
“They’ve been very respectful of the neighborhood and aren’t doing any big equipment operating at early or late hours,” she said. “I supported the need for a new building so I understand the need to use the North School space in the interim.
“I also feel it will be a positive thing to have the building appear more ‘occupied’ as it has been vacant so long and has attracted occasional dumping of trash as well as some graffiti.”
Nancy Reid attended the North School and has lived around the corner from it on Plymouth Street since 1965. She says she’s not worried about the new activity, even if it means a few more trucks in the neighborhood.
“Whatever is best for the town, we just have to put up with it for a little while and then it will be all over,” she said. “I just hope they do something decent with the school.”
The twin North and Center Schools were slated to be sold off to developers, and likely turned into housing. However, with the DPW needing the North School property for the next 20-plus months, the town opted to split the properties up and just seek bids for the Center School. Town Manager Scott Lambiase told the Select Board recently that although some developers were interested in the properties together, nobody placed a bid on the Center School site alone.