A special meeting of an organization called Friends Of Broughal School was held Monday, January 22 at the Forte Building in Southside Bethlehem. It took place under the auspices of the Mayor's South Side Task Force.
About 40 people were in attendance, a mix of general community activists, citizens concerned chiefly with this particular issue, and Lehigh University faculty, and students.
Bethlehem School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Lewis also was in attendance. During the course of the evening he listened to a great deal of advice and information that contradicted his administration's recommendations calling for the destruction of Broughal.
Among the speakers at the crisp, well-ordered meeting were citizen activist Stephen Antalics, prominent in the fight to save Broughal; City Councilwoman Jean Belinsky; Michael Kramer of the South Bethlehem Historical Society and co-founder with his wife Amy Senape of Save Our Steel; Michel LeFevre of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; former Bethlehem city official Dana Grubb, and several others.
Architect Christine Ussler, Bethlehem's historic preservation officer, also spoke briefly, and mentioned her work as a consultant in helping to preserve the old Nesquehoning and Summit Hill High Schools in Carbon County. She said those buildings had been in an advanced state of disrepair, and yet had been successfully rehabilitated. She added that in her view, rehabilitating Broughal would be a much easier job--it is a building in use and in good repair.
In his presentation, Michel Lefevre of the PHMC spoke of the concern in Harrisburg about the determination to destroy Broughal. He said Bethlehem is special, one of the best preserved places in the state, historically speaking; and that this preservation policy was a great boon to the economy of the city. The destruction of Broughal, he pointed out, would mean a loss of many millions of dollars in tax money.
Addressing Superintendent Lewis, LeFevre made an impassioned plea to save the old building.
Michael Kramer and Dana Grubb also detailed the financial losses and gains involved to the public, depending on whether or not old Broughal survives. Grubb also explained RFPs, or Requests for Proposals, to his rapt audience.
RFPs are a procedure for the disposal of public property in which the availability of the property is advertised, and firms and individuals are invited to make bids to acquire it.In the case of the school, only bids from bidders who wish to retain the school and maintain its historic appearance would be entertained.
Grubb pointed out that RFPs are a way of determining if there is a market for public property. If there is, it can be sold, to the profit of the public. If there is not, it can be disposed of otherwise.
The process avoids the problem of finding that there had been a market for property that no longer exists, and the public ire that
such a discovery might generate.
At the end of the meeting Superintendent Lewis said he was not the final authority on the matter; he himself was an employee of the nine-member school board. But he suggested that an idea might be brought before the board, urging haste because "the clock is running."
"Yes; but will we be listened to?" asked several of the community activists.
And that, indeed, is the question. Perhaps it will be answered at 7 p.m. on the evening of February 5, when there will be another school board meeting. I think it will once again be a meeting of the facilities committee, but am not sure.
It may be hoped, though, that this time the board does not keep us waiting 45 minutes to an hour, as happened last time.