City officials in Wall Lake are continuing their effort to repurpose the former East Sac County (ESC) Elementary School into a multi-use facility that will benefit a large segment of their residents. With input from the public, the city council opted to convert an area of the building into a new fitness center and another portion to preserve the community’s history with a room dedicated to mementos from the Wall Lake Comets. Clerk Chris Rodman says they have made progress in both areas over last winter and this spring.
However, Rodman says they did receive some bad news earlier this year regarding a grant application to fund the conversion of the upper level of the former school building into housing units.
Housing in rural Iowa has challenged communities of all sizes for more than a decade. The housing project would have been a boon for Wall Lake had it been approved. While the city’s application met the criteria for approval, the grant was more competitive than initially anticipated, with over $31 million requested for the $3 million that was made available. Rodman says it is not financially feasible to complete the housing conversion without outside assistance, so they need to go back to the drawing board. A public forum is scheduled for Sunday, June 26, but details will not be finalized until the council’s June 13 meeting. Rodman asks residents to start thinking of potential ideas for the upstairs space.
Rodman says the council favors upper-level housing, but they would like to have an alternative if that is not possible. The ESC School District closed the Wall Lake building at the end of the 2019-2020 school year as the school transitioned from four attendance centers to two.
