Morrisville school board to determine M.R. Reiters future Wednesday The decision many in Morrisville have been waiting for will be made Wednesday — what does the future hold for M.R. Reiter Elementary? The school board will vote at its regular meeting whether it will become open space, residences or an entirely different and undetermined purpose. The property has been vacant since a 2008 furnace explosion left the building unusable. In 2011, the board permanently closed the school, shifting students to other buildings. School board President Damon Miller had left it up to the board on whether to vote on the future of the property on Wednesday or wait until next month, after he reported all paperwork with the deed is in order. He didn’t want to wait longer than February, he said. Most on the board said they are ready to cast their votes. “I think we’ve waited long enough,” school director Dan Dingle said. The three options for the property were recommended in June after several meetings by sub-committees that were formed from the district’s M.R. Reiter Re-Purposing Committee. While preparing requests for proposals to explore possible options for the site, district solicitor David Truelove discovered conflicting wording in the property title paperwork. As he researched further, he found out that the now defunct Morrisville Borough School District Authority also owned some of the property. The district submitted the required paperwork to straighten out the deed with the county and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The transfer has been made in the county, Miller said. And until that was all settled, the board couldn’t move on vote. One of the most interested groups has been the borough’s Environmental Advisory Council, which strongly encouraged the Morrisville government to show interest in using the property as open space. The borough sent a letter to the district in recent weeks indicating that if the M.R. Reiter property becomes available, Morrisville government would be open to possibly moving on it. Such an interest, though, wouldn’t guarantee that the borough would acquire the property if the school district made it available, officials said. However, it would allow the borough’s environmental committee to research grants for land purchase and the building’s demolition, said Bill Setzer, a member of the EAC. Another community group that has a vested interest is the Historic Morrisville Society. Miller has explained that the property is divided into three parcels, one of which was granted to the historical society, so that parcel isn’t part of the discussion. The school lot is at the corner of Hillcrest and Harper avenues. Summerseat, which is the historical society’s headquarters as well as a national landmark, is located at Clymer and Legion avenues. And the third lot, which has a parking lot and an empty lot, sits at the corner of Hillcrest and Legion avenues. Sharon Hughes, a member of the historical group, said the society is on board with having the property transformed into open space and that it would be most advantageous for the community to have a pocket park. By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer | Posted: Monday, January 26, 2015 1:00 am buckscountycouriertimes/news/communities/falls/morrisville-school-board-to-determine-m-r-reiter-s-future/article_f4b718f1-a247-5e59-a57d-2ab43b88437c.html
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:30:25 +0000
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