KINCAID — The old Kincaid High School will be open Memorial Day weekend from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday. City officials hope people will take advantage of the open house and then share their opinions of how the two-story building can best be used as a community center and site for city offices.
An organization of alumni and city officials also would like for visitors to contribute to a growing pool of money to upgrade the former school. Donations may be made through Citizens Bank of Kincaid.
The idea of using the old school as a public building cropped up earlier this year when its out-of-state owner, unable to convert it to a money-making enterprise, told locals he’d be willing to turn over the deed in exchange for payment of property taxes.
Following two public meetings, Kincaid High School Community Center, Inc., was formed, and within a few days $6,500 was raised to pay the taxes. Fact is, donations have totaled $19,500, and with a $4,400 tax rebate — result of a protest of the tax bill — the group has $17,400 in hand. Members would like to accumulate $25,000.
Grant money, requiring a 25 percent local match, will be sought from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
“We don’t have any grant money yet and don’t know what we’ll get, but we’ve been encouraged to try,” said Ann (Herynk) Donaldson, KHSCC president.
USDA specialists advised organizers to have the building deeded to the city, which in turn leased it to KHSCC for 25 years.
“We were told our chances of getting grant money were better if the city owned the building,” Donaldson said.
Plans for the school are evolving.
Jeanette (Schneider) Young, KHSCC secretary, said there would be rooms that residents could rent for family or community events and the town’s nutrition site would be moved to the school. The gymnasium will be made available for walking and other exercise programs, including for those with physical disabilities once it is refitted to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
“We want to establish a Kincaid Museum and sometime in the future we’d like to have a library there,” Young said.
City offices, once moved, will be open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the school.
THE HIGH school was built through the Works Progress Administration in the mid-1930s at a cost of $100,000.
Classes convened in 1936 and the school turned out graduates until 1967. Statewide consolidation of hundreds of small school districts prompted the Crest District, which includes Kincaid, to move high school students to Colony.
The school then was used as a junior high school and later a middle school. Five years ago, middle school classes, along with lower grades from the town’s elementary school, built in the 1960s, were moved to Colony.
