WEST LEBANON — A plan to move the city’s Recreation and Parks Department into a multifamily residence on Seminary Hill likely won’t move forward after officials recently found serious structural problems with the 5,360-square-foot building.

But with renovation of City Hall slated to begin in August, the department will have to go somewhere. City officials say they’re exploring several temporary sites across Lebanon, including the former Seminary Hill School, which now houses the school district’s offices.

“It’s in pretty bad shape,” said City Manager Shaun Mulholland of the 1830s Greek Revival home initially chosen to house the department. “There are issues that they didn’t originally find in the structural (analysis regarding) pieces of the roof and the floor.”

Mayor Tim McNamara last year eyed the dilapidated multifamily residence at the intersection of Seminary Hill Road and Elm Street West as a future home for the recreation department’s five full-time and two part-time employees.

McNamara, a West Lebanon native, at the time said the move would place those employees close to Civic Memorial Park and John Bryar Field and provide additional space for the department.

The building, which was taken by the city for unpaid taxes in 2010, would give Recreation and Parks about 1,700 square feet of usable office space, more than double the roughly 700 square feet it now uses downtown.

City councilors commended the idea, saying it would place another city department in the heart of West Lebanon. Most of Lebanon’s municipal operations are based in City Hall downtown, although Lebanon Municipal Airport is located off Route 12A and there’s a fire station on Main Street.

It was initially estimated that it would cost $465,000 to renovate the building, and the City Council in December allocated $300,000 to a West Lebanon fund, which already had $165,000 earmarked for neighborhood improvements.

But when the city began cleaning out the building in February, structural engineers were able to take a closer look. They predicted it would cost at least another $250,000 to be made structurally sound, Mulholland said.

“So we just deemed it to be too expensive,” he said.

But the recreation office will have to find a new home soon. That’s because the city is readying to embark on a $3.3 million project to renovate City Hall this summer. And because Recreation and Parks has expressed an interest in someday moving into a community center, it doesn’t make sense to include them in the upgrade plans, according to Paul Coats, the department’s director.

He said there are three or four options that are being considered as a temporary home. Officials mentioned two during Wednesday’s City Council meeting: the old Seminary Hill School and River Valley Community College’s Lebanon Campus.

“It’s more of the city manager’s decision. If he sees the renting of Seminary Hill office space as a good fit for parks and rec, we are open to it,” Superintendent Joanne Roberts said on Thursday. “I’m hopeful that it moved forward. I think it would be a great partnership.”

Roberts, who was told of the city’s needs in a meeting early last week, had already told her staff that they might be hosting recreation offices soon and was readying to send City Hall dimensions of the SAU’s space on Thursday.

This isn’t the first time that the city has considered renting the historic school, which was built in 1901.

Coats in 2013 advocated for turning the building’s second floor, which includes a gymnasium, into a community center. That year, he helped launch a nonprofit group called “Friends of Recreation” that would help raise funds to make the move possible.

At the time, the school district had plans to only occupy the school’s third floor and ultimately move into a proposed expansion at the Hanover Street School.

Negotiations on the move lasted for about a year, but ended after it became clear that Recreation and Parks wouldn’t be able to use the entire second floor, Coats said.

He said the long term vision of his department remains the eventual construction and use of a community center that doesn’t just house offices, but also can be used for programs. However, it could take several years before that comes to fruition.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.