New life for old kindergarten? Prattville considers buying the building
PRATTVILLE - There may be a new life for an historic school building in downtown Prattville.
The City of Prattville is considering buying the Prattville Kindergarten School building. Built in 1920, the building has also served as Autauga County High School and the ninth grade school. It's on First Street. The Autauga Board of Education broke ground in October in east Prattville for a new kindergarten school, dubbed an Early Learning Center.
The city could use the old school to relocate the Prattville-Autauga County Library's main branch, which is also downtown. Or, it could be a new office for the parks and recreation department or a new home for the creative and performing arts department.
Initial plans were discussed in the city council's parks and recreation committee meeting Tuesday afternoon.
District 6 Councilman Robert Strichik attended the school as a freshman.
"I like the historic nature of the building," he said. "But I know there will be a lot of work needed to make it useable for any of our plans. It's a great building, but right now it's full of itty-bitty toilets and itty-bitty water fountains for itty-bitty people.
"Whatever we do, I hope we can preserve the front elevation to preserve its history."
The parks and rec department now has its main office in the Doster Memorial Center, just across Northington Street from the kindergarten campus. The library, located on Selma Highway on Autauga Creek, across Doster Street from the Doster Center has dealt with crowded conditions and building foundation issues for decades.
Along with the main school building the campus has other buildings, a gymnasium and playground space.
The city will begin working with the school system to come up with a potential cost. Where the money is coming from is another matter. The city has a one-cent sales tax fund it set aside last year, after the city council renewed a one-cent sales tax earmarked for paying the city's debt service. The debt was paid off about a decade earlier than anticipated, which freed up funding.
Generating about $7 million a year, the fund is now set aside for reserves along with education, parks and recreation, building and infrastructure projects. If the city buys the building, the city council would decide which "bucket" of the sales tax fund the money will come from.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: New life for old kindergarten? Prattville considers buying the building
