KEEGO HARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — The debate whether to save or demolish the century-old Roosevelt Elementary School building continues in Keego Harbor.
7 News Detroit sat down with David Emerling on the topic. He's a vocal supporter of saving the school from demolition. However, West Bloomfield school board members are looking to move forward with it.
"The crux of it is we want that hundred-year-old school to be part of our community for another hundred years, and for people that don't even live in our city to take that away from us is just outrageous," Emerling said.
"The actual why of what they're doing is a mystery. That's one of the things that we can't understand is why can't we get transparency of why do they want to knock down the school and most importantly, what are they gonna do with the land?"
He and a number of supporters raised those questions at 7 News Detroit's Let's Talk event on Wednesday.
Watch coverage of our Let's Talk event this week in the video below:
7 News Detroit took those questions to the school district and spoke with the district's attorney Tim Mullins. He said future use of the land has yet to be determined, but the district wants to keep it and not sell it.
The district closed the building in late 2023 after a ceiling collapse. Mullins explained the district is knocking down the building because it poses a liability as a safety risk and the longer it stands vacant, the more money it costs the district.
March 2024 coverage: Group seeks emergency court order to stop demolition of historic elementary school
"Those are definitely not the "whys". So, they had an insurance claim into the insurance company that would have repaired all the ceilings and they got the engineering study back from the ceiling collapse that said screws would fix it instead of nails," he said.
"That engineering study specifically said replace the nails with screws, everything's safe in the building."
As for the claims of a lack transparency by the board, Mullins said people are free to vote in new board members if they believe that will make a difference.
"We all want that school to stay and we want this to be the heart of our town," Emerling said.
March 2024 coverage: Judge temporarily halts demolition plans for historic Roosevelt Elementary School
Both sides are waiting for the decision on a court ruling that will determine whether the district violated the Opens Meeting Act. Judges will decide whether the district went about making the demolition decision without adequate public input.
The lower court ruled in the district's favor. So now, the appellate court is reevaluating.
