Over village objections, Cary District 26 moves ahead with new bus center; will demolish Maplewood School
Demolition of the shuttered Maplewood School in Cary could start as early as Thursday after Cary School District 26 secured a $374,500 bid for the project on Monday.
The elementary school, the district’s transportation building and the concession and restroom building used for the Cary-Grove Youth Baseball & Softball are all scheduled to be demolished before June 1, according to district documents. In addition, concrete pavement, stair ramps and playground equipment and surfaces will be removed.
Maplewood School, 340 W. Krenz Ave., has been closed for almost 14 years. The site will be turned into a vacant grassy lot.
The new Maplewood Transportation Center will be built on an adjacent property. It will include parking spaces for 40 school buses, a fuel pump, car parking and a building to house transportation staff.
The end of Maplewood School also marks the end of a period of fraught negotiations with the village of Cary, which had hoped the school property would be redeveloped and that District 26’s transportation center would be located elsewhere.
The contractors will take about 60 days to complete the demolition, said principal architect Greg Stahler from Cashman Stahler Group, which works for the district.
School board members on Monday narrowly approved the bid for the demolition work from contractor Fowler Enterprises in a 4-3 vote. Elgin-based Fowler Enterprises bid the lowest of six proposals that ranged from $374,500 to $851,000.
Stahler said Fowler Enterprises will not be using subcontractors in the demolition. The contractor will need to follow state prevailing wage laws, he said.
A plan for the construction of the new transportation center is not yet complete, as the district is working with the village to ensure the plan is compliant with zoning regulations, according to district documents. Bidding for the center’s construction could happen in February or March, according to the district’s project schedule.
The village of Cary proposed multiple scenarios to assist with the redevelopment of the property, which sits in the village’s downtown tax increment financing district that was created in August.
The district declined all offers, citing reasons including the potential future need of the property, wanting to stay on the construction schedule and the impact of the TIF on the school district’s finances, District 26 Superintendent Brandon White said in an email to the village of Cary on Oct. 31.
Some collaboration between the district and the village may still happen, as the village hopes to increase downtown accessibility with a Maplewood Access Road Extension project.
“Kindly note, however, that the board remains willing to collaborate with the village on future projects, specifically including the village’s desire to acquire land on the Maplewood property for road purposes,” White said in an email to the village.
Construction on the Maplewood property also forces the Cary-Grove Youth Baseball & Softball to find a temporary new home. The organization plans on renting fields more frequently, especially at Lions Park in Cary, youth league President Bob Johnson said.
The baseball organization, which supports about 500 kids who are 5 to 18 years old, already removed a league storage shed at Maplewood, Johnson said.