Members of a committee in Mulgrave are trying to come up with usage options for the town’s school.
The primary-to-six Mulgrave Memorial Education Centre will close at the end of the current school year Friday; town officials will take ownership of the building the following Friday.
Sean Reid, Mulgrave and Area Development Association chairperson, tells The Hawk they’ve done some brainstorming, and they’ve got a long list of ideas for the building, but they’re in the early stages.
“We (haven’t) done a lot of research on any one of the topics or due diligence regarding what would be the best fit for that type of facility,” he said. “We’ve got to take a close look at the layout, the public areas and all kinds of different things.”
Reid says ideas include a daycare service, office rentals, storage units and a cafe.
He says they’ve made a funding request to officials with the provincial government.
“We had the opportunity to meet with the minister of municipal affairs (Derek Mombourquette) last week; I explained where we were and some of the ideas we were looking at going forward and requested some support from government to allow us to proceed down those avenues,” he says. “We’re kind of at a wait-and-see.”
Reid says it could cost anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000 annually to operate the building.