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v5 y 1 . A fi pay k A Stink , | LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir: A matter has been brought to my attention which, I think, should be of some public con- cern, I am referring to the plan of the Reach Township Public School Board to tear down two more of the old school houses in Reach township, namely the school at Chalk Lake and the school at Utica. It is the policy of the school board, as outlined to me by them, to sell a schoolhouse to a wrecker for the nominal fee of one dollar, providing that he dismantle the building, clear & level the site. The building materials obtained are his to sell at whatever profit he can get. The school lot is then put up for sale by the school board as one or more building lots for new homes. The 'schools at Seagrave, Saintfield, Bethel, and Bethesda have already been destroyed in such a manner, and, since the Prospect school is closing this year, one might expect this building to be slated for demo- lition also. Of the remaining schoolhouses in Reach, no longer in use as schools,"three are be- ing used as private residences, of which one is for week-end and summer use only. Of these three, two are tidy and well maintained. Another school- house, which had to be sold to the adjacent farmer because the school board did not have clear title to the land on which it stands, is now being used as a pig-pen. It is most unfortunate that such a beautiful building with its stately setting and most magnificent view should be so humiliated, I do not feel it is inevitable that the Chalk Lake, Utica, and Prospect schools would suffer a similar fate if allowed to re- main. Nor do I feel it is ne- cessary to destroy them to avoid such a possibility. But I do feel very strongly that these old one-room schoolhouses are part of our national heritage. In this township we do not have many buildings that would be recognized by architectual authorities as being good: ex- amples, from the stand-point of design, of early Canadian archi- tecture. The grey board-and- batten church at Greenbank would probably be rated as the best that we have. We also have some handsome old _farm- houses, two other good @fturch- es at Utica and Prince Albert, and we still have, at least ten- tatively, three very attractive schoolhouses at Chalk Lake, Prospect, and Utica. The best example of schoolhouse archi- tecture that we had was at Saintfield, but this has already been torn down. Is land so scarce in our township that these school lots MUST be used as building sites for new homes? I maintain that anyone wishing to build in our area can still find other adequate builidng lots for sale. We are not yet that over- crowded. ; I do not wish to imply that these schools should be pre- served as art objects at public sibly extravagant, sold as private dwellings, pre- ferably for week-end or summer use. They would then be a than a burden on the other tax- payers. The school board does not wish to do this because it feels that, if these buildings are sold as residences, they will fall into the category of 'cheap housing'. As such they may become run- down and a public eye-sore. Furthermore, since the assess- ment on such a building would be low, the tax-revenue obtained from it would not cover the cost of educating the children the occupant might have, and therefore said cost would have to be assumed by other tax- payers. Should these schols be sold at public auction, as was done previously, they would have to go to the highest bidder, who- ever that might be. If, however the school board were to sell them by legal tender they could choose their purchaser from the bids submitted; they would not be legally bound to accept the highest offer. To choose the right applicant, a few discreet inquiries could be made, and letters of refer- ence could even be requested. The type of people who would appreciate these buildings, who would respect them as antiques and 'collectors' items" and make them attractive without destroying their architectural character, are those in the lower paid professions, such as teach- ers, professors, or people con- nected with one of the arts-- they might be loosely classified as "intellectuals". There is a tendancy among such people to move away from crowded beaches with their noisy motorboats and seek in- stead the peace and contentment of "the open countryside. A great deal of Uxbridge town- ship is being purchased for this reason, The fact that better highways are making commut- ing to Toronto much easier is attracting quite a few of these people to Reach. There have been at least a dozen inquiries or offers made to buy the Chalk Lake schoolhouse, many from such people as I have described. The school board maintains that, should it sell these build- ings to responsible buyers, we will have no guarantee as to how long these buyers will keep them before they will again be put on the market and possibly fall into the hands of "undesir- able" owners. I agree that there is this risk involved, but feel that it is a risk worth taking beacuse, like all antiques, as such buildings become older and scarcer, they will increase in value and be even more sought after by responsible buyers than they are now. I do not mean to overly criti- cize the Reach Township School Board. These people have volunteered to do a job that is the responsibility of the rest of us--our collective "dirty-work", For this they receive almost no expense. This would be impos- pay, little thanks, and a lot of 728-6201 (3 lines) DOS SEP® LIMITED ® YOUR CERTIFIED eo TRAVEL CONSULTANTS A complete travel service throughout the world. -- No Service Charge -- ORR A ROR RN Oshawa) OSHAWA 57 King St. East But I see | abuse and criticism. So few of no reason why they cannot be us have the stamina and forti- | tude for such a task that it has | been necessary to "draft" peo- source of tax - revenue rather | ple to run for election to the school board, and most of the current members have stood for election or re-election woppos- ed. Not only have they'been do- ing a very fine job of adminis- trating our schools, but they have also been faced with the tremendous burden of supervis- ing the construction of new con- PORT PERRY STAR, Thursday, July 8th, 1965 -- 3 solidated schools. However, in this matter of the disposition of the old school houses, I wish that they would reconsider. I realize that they feel that, in demolishing these old buildings, they are acting in the best interests of the com- munity, and I daresay that the majority of the community would agree with them, But, since these buildings would neither detract from the ap- pearance of the community nor place any traditional burden on the taxpayers if sold to the right persons, must this be a case of majority rule? I am writing this letter because I would like to know how the rest of the residents of Reach Township feel about this mat- ter. Am I a minority of one? Or are there others who feel that these old schools which have gerved their country so long 'and so faithfully do not deserve to be condemned to death -- that they deserve at least a graceful retirement? Catherine Christie A.W. BROCK 1D) OH oN SA LY BDI titio crease will keep. 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