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By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
FREE SOIL — Demolition has begun on the old Free Soil school complex, located on North Democrat Street.
Village President Dave Morley said Bob Peters is doing the demolition work. Morley said Peters has started with removing all interior items with the expectation for the former high school and elementary complexes to be razed in July.
Morley said the demolition work is being done partially at the expense of the village, along with some state funds. He said the village also is selling Peters some land where a dump had been located. Some of the labor for the demolition is part of the land sale.
The Free Soil School opened its doors in 1913. The original school house was used throughout the school’s history with additional structures, an elementary and a gymnasium, being added on. The last senior class graduated in 2007. The school continued as a kindergarten through eighth grade school until 2010. But the school fell victim of Michigan’s schools of choice law, which allows students to chose which school they will attend.
The school district officially consolidated with Mason County Eastern School District on June 30, 2013. At that time, the Free Soil Board of Education agreed to donate all the school buildings to the village.
The gymnasium, which was built in the late 1990s, will continue to be used as a community center. It is separate from the other two complexes.
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