Quechee
“I think the School Board and Tom DeBalsi are extremely helpful and cordial neighbors,” Waldorf Administrative Director Christine Scherding said late last week. “We’ll go back and probably present again at the next School Board meeting. This is in process as far as we’re concerned.”
Waldorf administrators hope to begin construction this summer on a planned $2.9 million, 5,300-square-foot addition that will hold middle school classrooms and a library for its 180 students.
Part of that project is an expansion of its parking lot into .44 acres of what is currently a vacant field owned by Hartford School District. The land lies to the north of the Waldorf’s current cul-de-sac off Bluff Road, and south of the backstop of an athletic field on the property of the Ottauquechee School, which is on Dody Lane.
“Part of that project is they really need to shore up their parking and pick-up and drop-off area in order to make this expansion viable,” Superintendent Tom DeBalsi told the School Board during a meeting last week.
In April, the School Board rejected Waldorf’s offer to pay about $10,000 for a 1.33 acre property that included the area needed for parking; during last week’s meeting, School Board members were critical of a second proposal in which the two parties would agree to a memorandum of understanding to enter into a perpetual rent-free lease agreement.
Under the proposed agreement, Waldorf would have improved the land by designing, engineering and building the parking lot and associated lighting, while the School Board would have been responsible for drafting a warning article for voter approval of the lease agreement. DeBalsi told the School Board that any lease with a term of more than three years must be presented to the voting public; in order to meet a deadline to get on the warning for the March 2017 Town Meeting, School Board members would have to approve language at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 11.
“I am in favor of working with Waldorf, having a mutually beneficial parking lot that we can share,” DeBalsi said.
He said the parking lot would provide a benefit to the Hartford School District, such as when students park at the Waldorf School to use the athletic field, or as overflow parking during big events at Ottauquechee School.
But DeBalsi said he had concerns about the specific agreement proposed by Waldorf. Instead of a perpetual lease, DeBalsi said he would favor a lease of 10 years.
Board member Peter Merrill said he would consider a 20-year agreement, but he and other members balked at the idea of a lease that would last in perpetuity.
“If the starting point is that we would arrive at a perpetual lease, I would have to say that would be a non-starter for me,” Merrill said.
Scherding said during the meeting that Waldorf anticipates the cost of building the parking lot as being “in the six figures,” and sought a perpetual lease so that it would be sure to realize the benefits of that expenditure.
“If we’re going to invest in this … we don’t want to have it taken back from us in a short time,” she said.
The School Board voted, 4-1, to direct DeBalsi to work with Waldorf to come up with a proposal for a lease with an expiration date, and that addressed whether Hartford would be liable for accidents that happen on the parking lot. Hartford School Board member Paula Nulty cast the sole opposing vote.
“All of this was proposed to be done without Waldorf paying any rent,” she said on Monday. “I don’t think it’s right to surrender an asset of the district for nothing, and to receive nothing tangible to improve upon Ottauquechee School students’ experience, or the Hartford taxpayer, in return.”
Another feature of the Waldorf School expansion, the demolition of a house and garage at 1815 Quechee Main St., was questioned during a recent meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission, which noted that the house has unique architectural features and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In current project plans from Bread Loaf Corporation, the structures on the corner of Quechee Main Street and Bluff Road would be removed to widen the intersection and make it more safe for school buses and other traffic, which currently have to navigate a tight turn onto narrow Bluff Road.
The house has historic value as a contributing building to the Quechee Historic Mill District, and it is listed as such on the National Register. Built in 1850, it is named the Dinsmore House, after a doctor who used it as an office. It served as the Congregational Church Parsonage from 1865 until 1882, according to the Register listing.
Scherding said the Waldorf School anticipates receiving the property as a donation to help its expansion.
“We obviously are extremely grateful for that potential gift and also want to have good relationships with the town,” she said.
She referred questions to the current property owner, Joseph Morel, of Eastman Farm in Barnard.
“It’s not our property,” she said. “The Upper Valley Waldorf School doesn’t own the property.”
Morel said in a phone interview that he would like to learn more before he offered a comment on the issue.
Matt Osborn, a planner with the town, said last week that he was hopeful an agreement could be reached in which the house could be preserved, while at the same time widening the intersection to make it more safe.
Scherding said that a fundraising campaign for the expansion is “well over 70 percent” of the way toward the $2.9 million goal.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.