FLORENCE: Old Duffy School building headed for demolition

By Amber Cox
   FLORENCE — The Township Council is moving ahead with its affordable housing project for senior citizens at the old Duffy School on Second Street.
   Township Administrator Richard Brook said the original plans for the project were to renovate the old school and transform it into affordable housing for seniors.
   Now however, plans are to demolish the building, but to implement some of the features of the old building into the new structure, he said.”The township and the school district have been speaking since the school built their new facilities and renovated the property on Front Street,” he said.
   The project discussion started a few years ago when the state said “you can set aside 50 percent of your affordable housing for seniors,” according to Mr. Brook.
   ”The governing body, the council and the mayor said this would be a great thing for us to do if we could take the old building and renovate it and use it for senior housing.
   ”It’s a part of our population (seniors) in our society that sometimes is forgotten, quite frankly, and they need help,” Mr. Brook said.
   The council is working with a company called Community Investment Strategies, of Bordentown, for the project.
   ”We’ve been working with them for a couple of years,” Mr. Brook said. “Unfortunately, at the time we started working with them the housing market took a tailspin. The cost or values of tax credits began to shrink and we’ve had difficulty getting full, complete funding from the state.”
   Mr. Brook said the old Duffy School is in a continuous state of deterioration and the township said, “why don’t we demolish the building because then it will reduce the overall cost.”
   ”It’s very expensive to take an old building like that and try and renovate it,” he said. “It was built for classrooms, there are gigantic high ceilings and baring walls in places you don’t want them. . .why don’t we demolish it, rebuild a building from scratch, it will be nicer for the people who are going to live there, it will be less expensive and it will also increase our opportunity and any chance to get funding.”
   Mr. Brook said the council was concerned about tearing down the Duffy School and not keeping its tradition alive.
   ”The main thing with the council was they understand they can’t make it look exactly like the Duffy School because it’s not practical,” he said. “But the front area architecture of the building can be implemented into the design. We like to try and maintain some things so when people come along they can get the feel of the old school. We also want to create a room within the building that would remember the Duffy School and some of the great memories that happened there.”
   Mr. Brook said council is moving forward with the redevelopment plan and plans to designate it as in need of redevelopment “so that we can help improve our opportunities to help develop this site, because the building there now is in a deteriorating state.”