Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Shelf Life

Every structure has a shelf life-- a point when it's time to move on.  If they can tear down Yankee Stadium, they can tear down anything.

There's talk of closing Meyers High School in south Wilkes-Barre.  As you can see from the photo above, it's a spectacular old building.  The superintendent says it needs a lot of work, and the school district is already running at a deficit.  It might be better to close the school.  They're not sure if the 900 students will be split among the city's other two high schools, or if a new school will be constructed.

The school board says it's not close to making a decision.

There's an emotional move to save Meyers, and I can understand that.  There's a lot of history here.  It'll be tough to move on.  Still, certain realities must be faced.  Property owners/tax payers are already stressed.

On the other hand, if the students are happy and safe here, if the faculty is interested and motivated, and if test scores are good, it'll be tough to make a case for closing Meyers.  You can't put a price tag on that stuff.
And then, there is the ongoing Hotel Sterling saga in Wilkes-Barre.  The county council talked about it again last night.  I never thought the Sterling was a particularly striking building from the outside.  The true beauty was on the inside, and the inside is shot.  I've seen the pictures.

You can do anything if you have the money, and it will be tough to come up with all the money needed to save the Sterling.  There's a move to button it up, weather tight, until the restoration money is available, but it might be a long, long wait.

Tough decisions lie ahead in Wilkes-Barre.