Clarksville Elementary sale still expected, delayed by issue with beams in gym

Enterprise file photo

First opened in 1948, the Clarksville school was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, recognized as being part of the Modern Movement style, for example, using natural light.

NEW SCOTLAND – Structural problems in the gym of the former Clarksville Elementary School have held up the building’s sale to the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.

“The County had raised a concern following their structural inspection, which the district has addressed with them. The sale is still pending and the County has until August 31 to make a final decision,” Hanna Teal, a spokeswoman for the Bethlehem Central School District, wrote in an email to The Enterprise.

Chief Deputy William Rice told The Enterprise that an issue was found with the support beams in the school’s gym that had to be addressed. “It’s nothing that’s going to collapse,” he said.

The sheriff’s office began leasing the building in 2012, a year after the school was closed. The building now serves as a home base for  85 to 90 deputies on patrol as well as housing the county’s emergency management center. Additionally, New Scotland pays to have its town court held in the building.

In 2017, Sheriff Craig Apple began talking with the Bethlehem district, which owns the school, about buying rather than leasing it.

Rice said this week that the county is in negotiations with the school district, and a decision will be reached by the end of the month. “Either we’re going to fix it, or they are going to fix it, but it’s going to get fixed somehow,” he said.

Rice said the issue shouldn’t scuttle the sale.

“It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be off — we are are going to proceed, I believe,” he said.

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