VALDESE – The town of Valdese has extended yet another option for the permanent headquarters of REACT, offering to allow them to buy the old band building on The Old Rock School campus.
Town Manager Jeff Morse said REACT, a not-for-profit organization intended to help support local and state enforcement by reducing risk in emergency situations around Burke County, planned to take a serious look at inhabiting the building and making it its permanent home.
“I think this would be a great place for REACT to settle,” Morse said. “The building has been abandoned for years now, and I think restoring the building and giving them a permanent home would be a mutual benefit for both the town and the organization.”
Morse said there would need to be a lot of renovation to the building to get it up to code, but he hoped between the town and REACT that would be feasible.
“The building did have asbestos, so we hired a company to come in and give us an estimate on how much it would cost the town to remove it, and it turned out it would only be about $12,000,” Morse said. “So to work this deal out they will still have to borrow money to renovate the property. They will renovate it, and we would get rid of the asbestos and provide a little additional funding to renovate the east side of the building, which faces our football field and campus.”
During the town budget meeting on June 6 the council approved the allocation of $20,000 to the renovation of the old band building, which is next to the teacher’s cottage. Morse said the reason the town planned to also put money into the renovation is because the asbestos is a concern for REACT.
“We obviously want to help get rid of that because most people who would buy a building would not buy one with asbestos,” Morse said.
Morse said no definite plans had been made because REACT is still looking into whether the move would be fiscally possible for the organization.
Terry Houston, president of REACT, said acquiring the building would be a great asset to REACT, but that the organization had an architect looking at the property to make sure the organization could afford to make the repairs needed.
“There are still quite a bit of details that need to be worked out before we know for sure,” Houston said. “Overall the structure looks like it will be a great move for us. It has all of the space we’d need to keep all our equipment together. But the budget is the main thing at this point, so we will just have to wait and see if it is possible for us.”
Houston said REACT has equipment in two separate locations. The organization is working out of the old Valdese town hall but space is an issue.
“Our operations are split in two separate locations, which makes response times a little bit longer due to having equipment in two different places,” Houston said. “It would be a huge asset to have it all together, and it would help make response times a little faster.”
Morse said tearing the building down would cost the town more money than helping to renovate it, and keeping the building would be an asset to the town.
“Now we will be able to preserve a facility that was used by so many citizens that went through high school here,” Morse said, “and they are going to make it an asset to Burke County again, rather than tearing down somewhat of a historic building.”
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