by Judy Frank
posted September 11, 2008
Hamilton County's Real Property Office has given school officials a draft version of the Request For Proposals on what to do with the old Signal Mountain Middle School property.
Gary Waters, associate superintendent of auxiliary services, said he just got the draft document. He and other school officials will review it, he said, and then it will be published.
With the new middle/high school now open, the former Signal Mountain Middle School on Ault Road will no longer be needed to house classes. Consequently, Hamilton County school officials are looking for a buyer for the 15-acre campus on which the school is located.
In April, School Board member Chip Baker told Signal Mountain town council members he expected the RFP to be ready by late May.
Mr. Waters said Thursday that he has not yet had a chance to review the draft RFP, so he is not certain exactly what is in it. However, developers generally are given about 60 days from the date of publication to submit their proposals, he explained.
He said it is likely that numerous proposals will be submitted, and school board members will then review all of them. After that, he said, HCDE officials probably will hold a series of meetings with Hamilton County and Signal Mountain leaders and update them on the status of the project.
Earlier, during the school board meeting, School Superintendent Dr. James Scales gave a tribute to former member Debra Matthews, who died soon after winning re-election in August.
School board members also honored the school nutrition employees, who volunteered to provide food for 250 Hurricane Gustav refugees three times a day during the week they were here seeking refuge from the weather in Louisiana.
Three days of those week were the normal Labor Day weekend, Carolyn Childs said, "but when I called our employees and told them we needed them to work those days, I never got a single complaint."
Interest is high on Signal Mountain on what will happen to the old school property, located at 315 Ault.
Residents – particularly those who live near the existing middle school property – do not want to see it rezoned for high-density housing or similar development, Council Member Susan Robertson said this summer during a public meeting at the town hall, and they don't want it turned into a parking lot.
And virtually everybody wants to keep the school’s track, where numerous residents go to walk almost every day, just as it is.
“People really love the track and the green space,” Mrs. Robertson said. “They want that to stay.”
A wide variety of suggested uses for the property were offered during the meeting in town hall. They included:
* Relocate the current Town Hall complex – government offices, ballfields and all – to the former middle school property That would leave the 18 acres on which the current Town Hall sits, located on prime land along the town’s main thoroughfare, available for development as a kind of village center, some residents suggested.
* Make the vacant middle school building, which boasts a stage, an adjunct to Signal Mountain Playhouse.
* Use the property as a senior center complex.
* Allow Signal Mountain Athletic Club to relocate to the property.
The old middle school has long been a fixture in Signal Mountain residents’ lives.
Built on land donated by Neal McDade of Rivermont Orchids, the school - then known as Signal Mountain Junior High - cost a whopping $327,000.
When it opened for classes in the fall of 1959, it had 266 students and 13 faculty members.
In 1962 a gymnasium was added, followed by a shop building in 1964.
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