Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

The Heartland Series, featuring Bill Landry, has released a short documentary on Sgt. York and the fight to save the building. You may view the episode by clicking the WBIR logo.

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008

NASHVILLE -- Chalk it up as a small victory for supporters of the original Alvin C. York Institute school building.

Facing possible demolition, the executive sub-committee of the State Building Commission voted yesterday to push back any decision regarding the school's fate for 120 days -- giving those involved until May to raise the support and funds that may be necessary to save their school.

For over an hour, members of the committee heard pleas from more than half a dozen York supporters who filled a State Capitol meeting room to reconsider emergency demolition in favor of restoring the more than 80-year-old structure in Jamestown, and one of Tennessee's most historic schools.

Among those supporters was Alvin C. York's oldest living son, George Edward York, who said restoring the building was something his father would have wanted.

"This is something near and dear to me," George said. "I've heard repeatedly from the mouths of people that if Sgt. York was here, he'd say away with the building. They're completely wrong. He would never say that. In fact, if my dad was living, that building would have never been in the condition it's in."

George said at one time there had been strong community support to restore the building, some 20 years ago, but that effort died after the state refused to step in and help.

"If it hadn't been for my dad, Pall Mall would have been two words on a map," he said. "I've never talked like this in all my public speaking, I sound like I'm bragging, but because of who my dad was, there's revenue coming in there that would have restored the building a long time ago."

Other supporters -- including Tennessee Tech professors Michael Birdwell and Calvin Dickinson, Alvin C. York's great-granddaughter Angela York, State Reps. John Mark Windle and Henry Fincher and Fentress County Executive John B. Mullinix -- all made statements supporting the school's renovation for the purpose of history. Perhaps the most convincing came from Birdwell, who said York's single mission was to improve the education in Tennessee, especially in his native Fentress County, from which he himself was poorly educated.

"In the letters he writes home from the war, he makes it very clear he realized he was deficient in some ways. And he realized that an education is what set him apart," Birdwell said. "Other people were more articulate, they could read better, they knew more about the world."

Upon his return home from France in 1919, Birdwell said York hired a tutor and by 1925 had raised $10,000 on his own to build his school.

"York helped dig the foundation for that school," Birdwell said. "York attended every graduation until 1954 when he had a stroke that left him debilitated. That school was his life. On two different occasions, he mortgaged his family's farm -- put his family in jeopardy -- to pay teacher's salaries. He bought the first two school buses out of his own pocket."

But the focus of the meeting continually shifted from York's legacy toward the funding needed for either restoration or demolition.

Costs for restoration are an estimated $3.7 million, and the fact that the building commission has no control over the state funding makes the issue more complex.

"I think it needs to be made clear -- this building commission doesn't have the authority to procreate money," said Secretary of State Riley Darnell. "There's not $4 million or $3 million. Those dollars don't exist today. They may materialize, but understand we are limited in what we have the authority to do."

Mark Buchanan, the engineer that wrote the report saying the original school building was near collapse, said three cost estimates ranging from $500,000 to $3.7 million were prepared for three different scenarios. One was to repair the building and bring it up to current building codes, the other to tear the building down and build a similar one in its place and the third to demolish the building completely.

"It is possible the building would collapse," Buchanan said. "That's readily apparent if you look at the outside."

Buchanan said a short-term fix would be to shore -- or give support to -- the front portion of the building that is currently in the worst shape.

"In structural engineering terms and in construction terms, we think of shoring lasting maybe weeks or months. Not years," he said. "But it was explained to us, because of the budget and the process, it takes years to get from point A to point B. We are not comfortable with a temporary shoring scheme that has to maintain the place for years."

Instead, Buchanan said, the best immediate option would be to tear down the front wall and build it back to current standards -- an option that would give the building approximately two years.

But cost overruns for restoration are expected. Original figures said $3.7 million was needed to tear the school down and rebuild at the site, but those figures could easily topple the $4 million mark, considering the need for portable classrooms next year for displaced students at the current school and the need for a future expansion at York Institute -- while there was no argument the school needs extra space, the issue is currently being studied at length.

"We are in the process of having a master plan done to determine whether or not we need additional space," Darnell said, noting the plan should be ready in six months. "At the end of that process we will have some feel if additional space is necessary, and that decision has not yet been made."

And throughout the meeting, strong opinions repeatedly surfaced over who is ultimately at fault for letting the building reach its current state. Students haven't used the old school since the 1980s, and the issue of preservation or demolition has come up before.

"The first report on the structure of that building was in 1988, and the state's done nothing at all since then," Dickinson said. "The state is at fault for not restoring that building, I think it's the state's responsibility at this point."

But Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz disagreed.

"I understand your desire to support his legacy, but I haven't heard anything from the community about what you are willing to do to help," Goetz said. "Where were you 25 years ago? The community needs to step forward. You have put this on us, and I'm not sure that's fair.

"We've been paying for the operation of that high school since its inception. How much is that on an annual basis?" he continued, referring to the fact that York Institute is the only school in Tennessee owned by the state. "We were told this building is dangerous. And if there's some way to save it, and the community's willing to drive that, that's something I guess we can consider."

With that being said, State Treasurer Dale Sims made a motion to recommend a decision be deferred for a period of 120 days, contingent on the fact interested parties come together to discuss the school's best interest.

"Hopefully in 120 days the budget will be enacted, and we'll know the level of state funding available," Sims said. "One hundred and twenty days with the expressed purpose of allowing people to partner, allow the grant writing to take place, to allow Fentress County and others to determine how they can best play a role in this."

Planning for that is expected to begin immediately.

"Maybe over the last 20 years we can all agree we haven't focused on this," Sims said. "I think we now have a reason to focus."