Howard city officials moved their regular meeting to the Cox Building on Monday night after hearing that a large group of citizens would attend to talk about the future of the old Howard Grade School building.

Although the turnout wasn’t as big as some thought it might be, it gave citizens a chance to air their views about the old facility, its present condition and some ideas about making it into some type of facility that would benefit all ages of area residents.

Over the past two weeks, the Elk County Forum has been buzzing with ideas, however the property is privately owned and there would be many steps to be taken before any public use could be made of the building. That’s why the citizens came to the meeting — to see if the City of Howard might involve itself in helping to acquire the old facility and partner with local organizations and citizens to rehab it into something useful for the young and old alike.

The school is owned by Rob Cookson and a local corporation, however he told those at Monday night’s meeting that he would gladly “deed it over to the city” if something productive could be made of it.

Patrick Perkins spoke about several possibilities for redoing the building, noting that it would probably be less expensive to remodel the building than to tear it down.

Susan Welder, Liz Hendricks and others also spoke about aspects of the proposal, but council members did not respond to the audience. Only Mayor Richard Clark addressed the issue, mostly saying it would be a very expensive project to undertake.

One issue was a line item in the city budget of $100,000 which is to be used for demolition of condemned properties, and Clark said there were 22 houses on the list.

The old grade school would be only one of the properties needing funds to redo or raze it.

At meeting’s end, there was no action by the council, but members of the Howard Lions Club said they would work with the owner to install plywood over the windows and try to “get the property safe” for children who often play on the nearby grounds.

The basement of the building also needs pumped out and weeds need to be mowed, and Cookson said he would work with citizens to remedy those problems.

In the meantime, the citizens group will continue with their brainstorming and trying their best to come up with viable ideas.

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