Another former school has been given a new purpose as the Town of Simmesport took possession of the former Dunbar High/Simmesport Elementary complex March 15.
“This will be a community-changer for Simmesport,” Mayor Leslie Draper III said. “It opens up so many opportunities for empowerment.”
Draper and some of his staff members did a preliminary walk-through of the site March 15, when the town was handed the keys to the property. Draper said the buildings needs some work but holds the potential “for a facility the community can be proud of.”
The town entered into a 99-year lease with the Avoyelles School Board for the former school and to use the ballpark and tennis courts behind Riverside Elementary. The lease calls for the town to pay $1,033.33 per month. However, that rental amount is offset by the in-kind services the town provides, including routine maintenance, insurance and future improvements to the property.
The town still plans to purchase the property outright at some point in the future.
Assistant District Attorney Derek Manuel said any decision to purchase the property would require another agreement and board approval. He said the in-kind services provided by Simmesport do not count toward any future purchase.
The sale price for the property is its appraised value of $148,500.
“The credit for in-kind services is strictly in lieu of the monthly rental,” Manuel noted.
The school was once the segregated all-black Dunbar High. When Dunbar was closed, it was renamed Simmesport Elementary and all high school students in the area were assigned to Simmesport High.
In 1988, Simmesport Elementary was closed and Simmesport High became Riverside Elementary with all of the high school students being assigned to the consolidated Avoyelles High in Moreauville.
The site was then leased to the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Office to serve as a women’s prison. APSO closed the prison several years ago.
HIGH HOPES, BIG PLANS
The town has high hopes and big plans for the community center.
“We have several community partners on standby, waiting for everything to get finalized so they can start programs,” Draper said.
“There is some clean-up work to be done, but we did not see any structural damage,” he said. “It is just cosmetic things. When the power is turned on, we will check out the heating and air conditioning. The roof is in good shape.”
He said the most renovation work will be in the gym.
“They turned it into a multi-purpose room, so we will have to go in and remove some walls to open it up for recreation and entertainment,” Draper said.
Draper said community partners will offer life skills and job skills training classes. There are also plans to provide after-school educational and recreational programs.
Grammy Award-winning singer Joe Simon is one of the center’s partners. He plans to provide a “community outreach” program that includes music and performing arts classes, mentors for children and young adults and tutoring for students in grades three through six.
Of course, the center will be a place to hold public and private community events. As such, it will be a possible revenue source to help offset costs of maintaining and operating the center.
The town and some civic organizations are seeking grants to help pay for one-time costs such as renovation work and start-up costs for programs, the mayor said.
‘HALL OF FAME’
Perhaps the most ambitious project for the center would be to house the “Simmesport Hall of Fame,” to honor those men and women who were either born in the Simmesport area or whose efforts in this area made a lasting and significant impact on the community.
Although there have been no nominations for induction yet, some early favorites for inclusion include the aforementioned Joe Simon, former mayor Leo Ehrhardt Sr., former District Attorney Eddie Knoll and Norma McCorvey -- better known as “Jane Roe,” the plaintiff in the landmark Roe v Wade lawsuit that legalized abortion in the U.S.
Simmesport has already honored Simon by having the portion of La. Hwy 1 within the town designated as Joe Simon Boulevard.
The town recently renamed its municipal park Leo Ehrhardt Central Park after the man who served as mayor for 10 4-year terms between 1940 and 1992. Ehrhardt retired in 1992 and died in 1997 at the age of 89.
Knoll is a Simmesport native who served as district attorney from 1972-2002.
McCorvey is known for the case that was used to legalize abortion in the nation. She later became an outspoken opponent of abortion-on-demand. She was born in or near Simmesport in September 1947 and died in Katy, Texas, in February 2017.
There are probably many other contenders for the first “class” of inductees, once the Hall of Fame is established.
The “re-purposing” of the Simmesport school leaves four closed schools still looking for a new life: Mansura High/Middle, Bunkie Middle, Fifth Ward High (Marksville Middle) and the former Avoyelles Vocational Training School between Bunkie and Evergreen.
The School Board still owns the “elementary wing” and gym on the Hessmer High campus. The Village of Hessmer purchased the rest of the old school site and has an intergovernmental agreement with the School Board to use the gym in exchange for routine maintenance and other in-kind services.