Petition seeks to save school property
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By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: November 18, 2009
SPRINGFIELD — For several months, Jean Willard has asked the Springfield School Board to keep the North School property. Monday night, she showed she's not alone in wanting to preserve the space for a public park.
Willard presented a 325-signature petition, asking the School Board to reconsider its "arbitrary decision" to ask voters for permission to sell off the North School property.
The board briefly discussed — but did not vote on — language for articles for town meeting in March asking for permission to sell, give away or otherwise dispose of the North School, East School, Park Street and Southview properties.
Willard, as founder of the North Springfield Recreation Park Committee, worried the land, which invites families with its soccer field, playground and ice skating rink, will be sold to a real estate developer.
"I think the language (of the article) sells out the land and leaves only the streets for the children to play in," Willard said.
School Board Chairman Larry Kraft has been pushing to dispose of the properties — initiating appraisals of the Park Street and East School properties and a survey of Southview — but said Monday the board wants to restrict the transfer of the North School property to a group that will preserve the land for recreation.
"It is not our intention to put the children out on the street," Kraft told Willard.
The School Board has offered the property to Willard's committee in the past, but the group has not completed the paperwork to receive nonprofit status and Monday night she once again asked for more time.
"I don't know what the big rush is to get rid of these properties," she said.
Kraft invited Willard to suggest language for the article that would specify how the board could dispose of the North School property, and following the meeting Willard said she would, incorporating language from the covenant on the property that preserves it for recreation.
Willard said her group had little trouble gathering the signatures, going door-to-door and talking with shoppers in the Springfield Plaza.
"It didn't take very long. We could have gotten a thousand (signatures)," she said.
Willard said she wants the language of the article to reflect the board's verbally expressed desire to preserve the land for recreation.
The board is not expected to take action on the property articles until January when it approves a budget to present to voters.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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