School Demolition
Faces New Delay

The federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) had another nasty little surprise for the town of Randolph last week. Its head office in Washington said it will not allow $250,000 of EDA funds to demolish the old Village school on Main Street.

The EDA will pay for building things, but not for tearing them down, seemed to be the message.

However, demolishing the 1911 brick school is a key to building a new office building on the site. And EPA funds had been counted on as an important part of the package.

The setback was a surprise, because it occurred at the very ending of the funding approval stages, and nobody saw it coming.

The EDA decision does not mean that the demolition won't be paid for, since there is other money in the package of grants that can be used for that, said Jeremy Ingpen, executive director of the Randolph Area Community Development Corp.

However, the $250,000 that was to be used for demolition now has to be assigned to another project, and matching funds have to be lined up.

"It's a huge headache," Ingpen acknowledged. Asked it if had the potential to delay the whole Main Street project he responded, "I don't think so."

The project would include construction of an office building on the school site that would be leased to DuBois & King, bringing 80 jobs into downtown Randolph. At the same time, the existing D&K buildings would be sold to Vermont Technical College, which would establish a business incubator there.

The project has received funding from a half-dozen various sources, and EDA money has been promised for two years. However, the agency has changed its position various times, so that the project has had to be redesigned.