After almost two years without any action, there is finally some progress being made on the vacant Pierson School. The Town Council is anticipated to appropriate $12,000 at a meeting next month for an engineering study that the town hopes will aid in finding a new use for the Pierson School.

At a Town Council meeting on Sept. 15, Town Manager Karl Kilduff announced the town’s engineers have told said an engineering study could be done on the building for $12,000. Kilduff said the council can make a line-item transfer at the next meeting to pay for the study with money in the contingency fund.

Kilduff explained to the Harbor News how the study could help. He said that by understanding what changes—if any—could be made to the floor plan of the building, it will help the town make decisions about a future use.

“In short, can other floor plans work in the space or can the school only accommodate the existing walls which delineated classrooms? It would be important for the council to understand the extent to which the building could have alternate uses.

“A community charrette was held previously which identified a number of possible uses,” Kilduff continued. “Clarifying what can be done with the building helps inform and move any re-use forward.”

Kilduff said that the work will be done by DTC, the town’s consulting engineer and will take around 30 days from the start date.

Getting an idea of that changes can physical be made for the building is only one hurdle that the town had to clear when it comes to Pierson. During a Town Council meeting in August, Kilduff said that the biggest hurdle regarding the property remains sorting out the title of the property, and that he hopes to have communication from co-property-owner The Morgan Trust shortly.

“[T]he town needs to resolve a legal matter, which is at the heart of any change in use of the building. I believe we are now on a good course to resolve the matter. When this essential item is resolved, there will be an opportunity for a more robust discussion on the future of the site and the role it can play in the town’s future,” said Kilduff at the time.

The town actually owns only 37 percent of the school property, a percentage that doesn’t include the land under the building itself. The Morgan Fund trustees own the rest. Furthermore, a deed on the property related on the sale of the building from the trustees of The Morgan Fund to the Town of Clinton in 1953 states that the premises must always be used for the education interests of the residents.

The town has been pursuing cy pres action on the property, which would lift the deed restriction. Cy pres is a legal concept that allows courts to interpret the language of trust or wills if the intended original wishes cannot be carried out. The process to achieve all this has been extremely lengthy, though progress may be achieved soon if the talks with the trustees are successful.

The Pierson School closed its doors at the end of 2019 and the town assumed control of the building the following fall. Some community members have been annoyed at what they perceive as a lack of action on the building. However, the council has had multiple discussions on the building during executive sessions.

At the meeting on Aug. 18, Town Council Chairm Chris Aniskovich reiterated that the public will get a chance to make its voice heard on the future of the building once the council has more information about the future of the building and its legal status.

“Obviously there’s going to be a lot of public involvement on this,” Aniskovich said. “At the end of the day, whatever happens at Pierson School should be for the benefit of the town—not this year, next year, five years from now, but for many years to come.”

During a survey in 2019 on what kind of future uses residents would like to see in the building, the three prevailing thoughts were a senior center, moving the library into the building, or using it as a kind of community center.