OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — The future of the century-old Merrill School building will be voted on at a city council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
- The Oshkosh city council will vote to approve or deny a zoning request for the Merrill School lot.
- The district will need council's approval to proceed with the project.
- The city council first voted on the zoning change on Sept. 10, when the change was denied 4-3.
Niki Nessler has lived in her home across the street from the old Merrill School building for a year.
She says she sees lots of people come by to take pictures of the school, showing her what the building means to the community.
"It's been important to this neighborhood, especially with the two playgrounds," she says. "I think the neighborhood is going to miss it."
Nessler says if the school is demolished, it will push her and her family to move out of the area.
"It's just too much of a change," she says.
The Oshkosh Area School District plans to demolish the school and create an athletic facility for the students at Vel Phillips Middle School.
Currently, students must cross the street to the field on New York Avenue and Jackson Street for extracurricular activities.
Funding for the project will come from the $107 million referendum voted in by voters in 2020.
The district says demolishing the school will cost about $900,000.
The district will need the city council to approve a zone change for the lot in order to build an athletic facility.
On Sept. 10, the council voted to not accept the zone change because they saw an athletic facility as a poor use of the space.
“Just tearing stuff down for an essentially empty space that’s not going to be used 95% of the time, when you can use it and generate tax money just seems like very, very poor planning," city council member Paul Esslinger says.
Esslinger voted against the rezoning and says he plans to do the same on Tuesday.
He says the district should have sold the building to a developer and converted the space into affordable housing.
"We've had developers show interest in taking that building over," he says.
The zone change was brought forward again by council member Joe Stephenson, who said in a Facebook post "I requested a reconsideration for the Merrill rezone because the school district addressed my concerns. I like to think I'm a man of my word and if someone addresses the critiques I have in a plan, I am more than willing to bring it back."
According to Esslinger, the district added more trees and landscaping to the plans, but did not change much else.
"There's just so many reasons not to do this," Esslinger says.
Oshkosh Area School District superintendent Bryan Davis says the district will continue to work with the council to find a solution, if the zone change is denied again.
"From a school standpoint we know that the green space and being able to provide co-curricular opportunities for kids is really important," Davis says.
More information on the Tuesday meeting council agenda can be found here.
