Reader issues plea to save Cove School
To the Editor and to the Citizens of Weirton:
Please help me to stop the destruction of Cove School. Cove School is a solid and sound concrete and steel historic building built in 1911 and two wings added in 1939 by WPA.
The 1893 deed reads that the property is to be used for education or seminary.
The Board of Education (BOE) gave a school to each town in Hancock County. Chester has made theirs into a city building and rents out rooms. Newell rents theirs out to small businesses. New Cumberland turned around and rented one floor to the BOE. The rest into city building and recreation.
The BOE had a bond issue in 1989 and spent $350,000 on Cove School. In 1991 they told Weirton it could buy the school. In 1991, Weirton passed Resolution No. 1081 to buy the school.
In 1991 the Weirton Historic Landmarks Commission (WHLC) gave the city a letter asking for an agreement and the school.
In 1994, the city passed another Resolution, No. 1341, to buy the school.
On March 2006, in a meeting with Mayor Miller and City Manager DuFour, Mayor Miller told the WHLC that he did not know if the city owned Cove School.
The next morning I went to the county clerk. She did not have any record of transfer. She went to the assessor's office. They did not have any record of transfer. I then went to the BOE Financial Officer Joe Campinelli in the New Cumberland building. He said it was not transferred and waved a brown envelope in the air.
In a meeting in April 2006, the city gave me a copy of a deed dated October 2005.
The city sat on their hands from 1991 to March 2006. Fifteen years. I have not read where anyone was arrested for the vandalism. The vandalism can be cleaned up. The school is solid. There is 95% of the urinals and commodes still in place.
The WHLC feels we can rent out the eight rooms on the third floor and bring in $96,000 per year. Enough to hire a manager and security. We plan to have two rooms for storage of records for income. Also two rooms for a Cove School Museum. We have a three-ring binder, one-inch thick of corporations, companies, trusts and individuals who are interested in supplying grants to rehab historic buildings.
The WHLC is a financially responsible commission. We have paid off Hancock Savings Bank and United Bank $55,600 in 2005 and 2006.
Please send me a short card or note saying you want to save Cove School. Please print your name, address and phone number and sign your name.
Richard D. Reinard Sr., Treasurer, Weirton
