The city of Algonac is poised to get $200,000 in COVID stimulus dollars administered by St. Clair County to help early redevelopment steps at the old Algonac Elementary School property.
Last week, the City Council agreed to accept the amount in American Rescue Plan Act funds through County Commissioner Dave Vandenbossche from the county’s larger ARPA coffers — each commissioner was allocated $1 million last year to use in their districts — to go toward the school’s rehabilitation.
Vandenbossche, who represents District 7, including the southern end of the county, said on Thursday that he expected the subrecipient documents tied to the deal to go before the county board next month.
“It’s a dilapidated building, and they’ve got some great ideas for developing it. A lot of people invested into it,” he said. “I want to see what they come up with. But the building has been idle for so long.”
According to a summary from Algonac City Manager Denice Gerstenberg to council members, the funds would go toward the cost of architectural services, asbestos survey and removal, engineering services, furniture and fixtures, selective demolition, and renovations of the school.
The property itself, which the city purchased after several years of vacancy late last year, was subject to an idea session with local residents and community stakeholders earlier this month. The group widely agreed that they didn’t want to demolish the site, and that they wanted to keep the school’s gymnasium and cafeteria for community use in partnership with a private developer to repurpose the rest of the 69,000-square-foot structure at 1216 St. Clair Blvd.
During a meeting last Tuesday, Gerstenberg told council members that the she expected a meeting with an architect this week.
She said the building official had also been through the school again, that they’d received the asbestos surveys from the last owner, and were receiving information about leaks in the roof.
“Dave and I have been speaking for quite a few months,” Gerstenberg said jokingly. “We know that ARPA money was available. The county could not decide what they were going to do with it. And then, they recently decided they would give each of the commissioners a million dollars, so as soon as I found out that money was available, I called him and said, ‘Hey, I’ll take 200,000.’”
Councilwoman Dawn Davey said they were grateful for the allocation, adding, “This is going to make a major dent in the beginning of getting started on this. So, very happy.”
Councilman Michael Bembas said, “It’s a good start” to the site’s rehabilitation overall.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.
Read More: Old Algonac Elementary getting early $200,000 investment from county ARPA funds