Joplin R-8 Board of Education is scheduled to approve the demolition of the Columbia Elementary building when it meets 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Memorial Administration Building. The board approved listing the building as surplus property in January.
Columbia and West Central were closed following the opening of Dover Hill Elementary. The district had a memorandum of understanding with the city of Joplin to demolish Columbia within 12 months of opening Dover Hill.
District officials are recommending the board accept the low bid of $271,430 from Moates Excavating. The district also received bids of $276,810 from Remco Demolition, $298,000 from Wheeler Excavation and $450,000 from Vaughn Dirtworks.
The demolition funds will come from the capital outlay budget.
This posture Joplin Schools has taken with pushing school consolidation with buildings on the edge of town or outside of neighborhoods runs counter to any sense if community. The neighborhood elementaries are the last shred of small scale community in Joplin, and the suburban mindset of the people making these decisions serves only to finally end it once and for all. I'm sure their distorted reality comforts then into thinking they are doing a public good with these damaging projects.
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