HOORAY!

I have no time to circulate a petition and I am bot sure how to start a PAC but I van start an MOL thread.

We now have in the middle of beautiful downtown Maplewood a huge empty abandoned warehouse like building. When it was the Post Office it served a purpose. Now it has to go. Post haste!

Wait? There's a closed post office in the middle of the village? Why didn't someone tell me about this?

Have to admit that after a bunch of years my memory is a bit hazy..........but I do remember that in 1981  the voters of Maplewood/South Orange after a most contentious TC election  brought in the slate that was pledged to close three of our schools.

Well since all three schools were in South Orange  you can imagine the uproar that ensued.

We closed what was then the Newstead School I believe for a few years.  It lay empty but fortunately no one wanted to knock it down .  In time as the school population grew it was needed again and became the South Mountain Annex.

The Montrose School was closed also.  I was familiar with the building since I did the Pest Control  for a few years.  The building

was solid as a rock clad in steel.  I pities the company that tried to knock it down.  Well the Board of Ed kept it in existence and it was for a time rented to private educators and then used by our own School System again.   It is very much in existence

Even before that the Third Street School was closed to the system and is now used for Physical Therapy  and other needed functions, Kessler is among them and I believe there is even a pool in the building

And finally the old Fielding School which was closed as a school but became the offices of our Board of Education

What does the Maplewood /South Orange School lsystem know that the town has not as yet realized.?

.

So now you want the building to become a school?  Have the lawn sign people approved this use?  

Or are you saying 2-3 years from now we will change our mind and want it back as a post office?

Montrose School is re-opening this coming fall for pre school kids, those with special needs. Not sure if it is a done deal yet.

emmie said:

Montrose School is re-opening this coming fall for pre school kids, those with special needs. Not sure if it is a done deal yet.

They have been taking registrations for the preschool program (the ELLI program, which combines paid non-IEP students with students on Special Ed plans).  So I'd say that the deal is done for next year.

@susan1014, I am so glad this is actually happening! Wish these kind of services were available

when my son was 3, nothing back then for him.

Red Barchetta......Congratulations  you missed my point completely.. I won'r even bother to explain again.

Marylago............what the Board of Ed did not so much know but surmised was that each and every of the the closed school buildings could be put to good use.   And they were right.  All  but the 3rd Street school is still in the System .........and this is 35 years after their closing.

The Montrose School has a great piece of land.  I don't know how many condos could be built on their open field..........but they resisted the temptation to level the old school and now it is about to be reborn.  The Fielding School and what was the Newstead School could also have been leveled......................for  a flat amount of monies going to the system.   They resisted the temptation and ironically I believe the system is still somewhat overcrowded............Are the portables at Clinton School still being used?

There is tremendous value in our old buildings.   And this value is not to use them as land on which to build housing but as something,  in this case as a real Village Green.or Promendade.........something which will benefit ALL the people of Maplewood Township.   Housing was built at the Site of our old Police Station............and will probably be built on the site ot the old

Public Service Complex.    An oversized housing unit does not belong  in the center of our Village.  That land belongs to the Peope of Maplewood Township...............now and Forever.

Is the entire building reopening?

author said:

Red Barchetta......Congratulations  you missed my point completely.. I won'r even bother to explain again.

 We should keep it in case the PO eventually comes up with an alternate use for it?

author said:

Red Barchetta......Congratulations  you missed my point completely.. I won'r even bother to explain again.

 No, you missed mine.  

Mr. C....

.........if you are asking is the Montrose School opening again in its entirely .............as far as I know ,  the answer is yes.

This is just an add on but for one full season the great piece of land used by the Maplewood Community Garden  with obvious

permission of the Board of Ed.  This was their third Garden at the time.  The land was so fertile and the sunlight so perfect

that the Garden got its greatest yield and donated untold pounds of produce to local churches and food banks

The residential neighbors were delighted  by the sight of so many vegetables growing on what had been noting

but a giant lawn.  Don't know the  exact size but it could have easily become a large number of condos or townhouse.

After some asbestos removal the great old building has been recycled as a School

I was, and while I debated about extending the thread drift, I was still curious and do appreciate the info.  Wasn't sure whether they had fully remediated the whole building or not.

I am fine if we demolish the post office while we debate what to put there   

And that would eliminate the possibility of using the old building in another manner.

It costs nothing to leave it there till other possibilities are considered which could serve the community better than the current plan.

"Give Peace a Chance"...........ooops wrong thread

Maybe hold an auction?  Highest bidder gets to drive the first bulldozer over that ugly hunk of cement.

There is value in some old buildings, not all of them.  Obviously,  retaining the old school buildings was a good move.  Why there is any particular value in retaining the P.O. is  less clear.  Unless of course, the value lies in preventing any changes to the Village.

The old school buildings are, to state the obvious, school buildings.  Taking the long view with them was sensible.  School building space was a good resource to preserve.

The old post office is a warehouse with a retail lobby, which probably can't function as-is, and would have to be reconstructed.  There are warehouses in Maplewood, this one just happens to be in the middle of Maplewood Village.  A warehouse in the middle of Maplewood Village doesn't seem like a resource that needs to be preserved.

No not merely preserved.  But rather as the nucleus of  a building functioning so as to be useful to the Township.

Start with it as the core and build from there.  A little imagination and initiative can yield many  different results.

Think not so much outside the box but rather that the box is the first building block.

The difference between a custom made suit and one which is off the rack which is what we are being offered comes to mind.

author said:

No not merely preserved.  But rather as the nucleus of  a building functioning so as to be useful to the Township

 I have no idea why anyone would say that additional retail space and residences in the Village is not "useful to the Township".

Shops and homes are about as useful as it gets.

author said:

There is tremendous value in our old buildings.   And this value is not to use them as land on which to build housing but as something,  in this case as a real Village Green.or Promendade.........something which will benefit ALL the people of Maplewood Township.   

 So, save the post office, pull up the parking lot and turn Ricalton Square into a Village Green. I'm cool with that. Shame there'd be this massive empty ugly concrete building right in front of it.

author said:

The difference between a custom made suit and one which is off the rack which is what we are being offered comes to mind.

 Wouldn't the brand new, built from the ground up building be the bespoke suit? And a repurposed post office would be the off the rack suit, it's not really the right fit and so requires alterations? I get what you are attempting to say but it's a crappy analogy. 

Both schools and the post office are single purpose buildings.  The difference is that the need for classroom space varies based on population trends.  The post office building has served it's purpose and is now obsolete.  As I have said before, nobody has made any proposals for the old post office building that are practical and economically viable. 

author said:

The difference between a custom made suit and one which is off the rack which is what we are being offered comes to mind.

In your analogy, repurposing the existing building is the ill-fitting off the rack suit.

I think the biggest question is whether the ugly suit off the rack can be tailored to "suit" a need for the village. In this case, I think it would take some serious creativity and money to re-purpose that building. It really is very ugly and not terribly useful in its current state for anything but a ... post office. Did I mention it's ugly?

Yes, it could be renovated to be something else, but at some point it requires more money than it's worth, possibly becoming even more costly than tearing it down and starting from scratch. 

To my mind, if someone with deep pockets comes along with a great idea for the existing building, great. But if someone else comes along wanting to tear it down, recycle all the salvageable materials somehow (perhaps for an entirely different project) and put up something the village can use, then go for it. 

The least acceptable option would be to let the empty eyesore just sit there indefinitely.

Wait, there was a school on Third Street?  I thought it was on First Street.

Oh, and talking about not tearing down schools, where is the old South Orange Junior High on Academy Street before the new one was built in the 50's on Ridgewood Road?  Gone.

Is this discussion about schools or haberdashery? 

If the former it should be under the Education category.

If the latter, not sure, Virtual Cafe?

its really simple.  can this old building be profitable to a new owner/ manager based on acquisition, remodel, and ongoing income.   if its yes, then talk about options.  if not, then plan for something new that is proftable and work out the aesthetics.