DEMOLITION … The Old Edon School (pictured) has had all the items removed with the next current step being to have all the asbestos removed. That process will take three weeks and then the school will be demolished. (PHOTO BY DANIEL COOLEY, STAFF)
By: Daniel Cooley
In a meeting of the Williams County Commissioners on November 7, 2022, the commissioners passed Resolution 281, to have the old Edon School torn down.
The resolution said that the old building was an environmental hazard and had become dilapidated.
Further, the resolution stated that the old building met “the standards of being classified as a spot slum and blight designation.”
Almost five months after Resolution 81 was passed, the old Edon School is in the process of being torn down.
Twenty years after the new Edon School building that includes elementary and junior and senior high schools opened for the 2003-04 school year, the old Edon School building has sat vacant.
The new school, at 802 West Indiana Street, is located approximately one-half mile northwest of the old school.
The old school, which housed junior and senior high school students, is currently located on the southeast side of Indiana Street, on the corner of Webster Street and Indiana Street.
The property is also adjacent to the G. Kent Baseball Field that Edon students utilize.
The Mobex Global company is located directly behind the baseball field. The Land Bank has acquired the old school building.
The reason that the old school is now in the process of being demolished is because of a $735,995.75 grant that was received.
This is according to Kelly Gray, the Williams County Treasurer, who is also handling the finances for the Land Bank, for the old school building.
Tetra Tech won the bid at $530,589 to demolish the property. Tetra Tech is using Advanced Demolition to tear down the old property. Gray said that the Land Bank owes $99,000 for the property.
According to Heidi Bidwell, the Village of Edon’s Fiscal Officer, all the items have been removed from the old building and the next process before demolition is asbestos removal.
Bidwell said that that process should take about three weeks. Then the building can be demolished.
The Land Bank would then have to decide what to do with the property. “There are a lot of options, like selling lots off, but nothing has been decided yet,” Gray said.
Dan can be reached at Dan@thevillagereporter.com
