Intriguing ideas for Cave Spring’s school property
All it take is a little cash — or access to it. In my old fashioned Norman Rockwell mind I’ve always had a fondness for Cave Spring. I hope the folks in that wonderful community won’t take umbrage with my thinking of the town from a Mayberry-ish point of view.
This past Tuesday night, residents of the community and its suburbs met at Cave Spring Elementary School to entertain ideas for what the city ought to do with the school.
The Floyd County school system closed the campus last summer and sent youngsters from the Cave Spring community off on long bus rides to either Coosa or Pepperell.
It was a gut-wrenching decision for the school board and a punch to the gut of the folks in Cave Spring.
Small towns all over America function in significant measure with a direct link to their local schools. The high school went away decades ago, now the elementary school is gone.
All that is left is the Georgia School for the Deaf and, make no mistake, that is a hugely important part of the life of many residents in Cave Spring. A lot of folks in town came to Cave Spring from all over Georgia and many of them decided to make their home in the community after graduating.
In fact, one of the ladies who attended GSD — then went on to Gallaudet University, a renowned college for the deaf, and came back to Cave Spring in retirement — got up to sign her thoughts on the reuse of the old public school for the large crowd. She said a museum focused on education for the deaf sits in a tiny space on the GSD campus and perhaps some larger space at Cave Spring Elementary could be dedicated to a museum for the deaf. I think that’s a good idea.
Most of those who spoke Tuesday night advocated some sort of multi-purpose, mixed-uses for the facility.
If the city of Cave Spring decides to hold on to the buildings, it’s going to have to find a way to generate at least $90,000 a year to offset the ongoing cost of maintenance and utilities. That certainly sounds reasonable and, frankly, not terribly expensive.
Drew Jones with the Cave Spring Downtown Development Authority is one of the young movers and shakers in Cave Spring. He pointed out the serious lack of lodging in Cave Spring and suggested a portion of the building could be used for a hostel or AirBnB. The perfectly good gymnasium and the existing cafeteria could be converted into a fitness center and restaurant for the lodging.
Jones also mentioned the thought of moving the Welcome Center into the building and brought up the possibility of relocating the city library into the school building.
Regardless of the final choice, Jones suggested that the gymnasium and auditorium should remain available for community use.
A representative of the Alton Holman Heritage Arts organization based in Cave Spring said that organization would be interested in taking a number of the classrooms to create a permanent home for the Appalachian heritage arts organization.
Another speaker suggested using space for a satellite branch of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. The same gentleman also pitched the idea of converting part of the building into a new city hall and using the existing city hall for a hotel. That’s certainly an intriguing idea!
The former DDA director, Sandra Lindsay, wondered about what the school might be used for in the event the city decided to sell it. One of her ideas was a boutique conference center. Again, the school has plenty of classrooms that could be converted for overnight guests, the auditorium plays right into the ability to host groups for meetings and the cafeteria could be easily converted for dining space. She also suggested the possibility of developing an upscale condo/apartment residential space.
I’m not the best at guestimating crowd size, but I can tell you that Mayor Rob Ware was very pleased with the turnout for the meeting. There is no question that the entire community is hurting at the loss of the school for its originally intended purpose, and the mayor was very happy that such a large group would turn out on a lousy, misty, rainy night to discuss ways the building could continue to serve the community. I feel certain that he was also happy, and probably more than a little proud, that the crowd was respectful of everyone’s thoughts and ideas.
In addition to the school buildings themselves, the campus has approximately 8 acres on the back side of the buildings that could be used for any of a number of purposes.
The possibilities seem to be endless and all it takes is someone, or a group of folks, with some imagination and vision of what could be.
Two folks for a lot of vision for the reuse of old buildings, Romans Ira and Libby Levy, were in attendance and sat right on the front row. I texted Ira as I left the meeting and told him I could see the wheels in his head spinning with ideas.