T-L Photo/JANELL HUNTER Village of Belmont Water Board President Ken Davis and Mayor Stan Sobel discuss the fate of the 102-year-old Belmont Elementary School with village residents and officials on Tuesday.

BELMONT — The village of Belmont is one step closer to making a decision about the fate of its 102 year-old elementary school building after the Belmont Elementary Forward Committee met for the second time Tuesday.

The committee was formed to allow residents and officials to discuss options for the building, which is in disrepair and would need over $1 million of work to restore and bring up to code.

The committee, comprised of Mayor Stan Sobel, Water Board President Ken Davis and Councilman Grant Williams, led the discussion, mostly centering around reasons why the village cannot afford to restore the building and maintain it, with a total of seven residents and village officials in the audience.

The first meeting of the committee was held on June 7, and the last meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in the Belmont Gymnasium.

The village is only using one room of the building, which serves as its water office. The cost of keep the building heated during the colder months is $2,400 per month. Sobel said when he became mayor in January 2016, he began trying to find ways to save money and lowered the thermostat to 40 degrees. The heating bill then became $750 per month.

“We only use one room. So the community is paying this much per year to keep up a 102-year-old building for one room. That is their tax dollars,” Williams said.

The committee reviewed much of what was said at the last meeting — that the building is structurally unsafe as it sustained major water damage from a leaky roof, bricks are falling off the top edge of the building, floors are buckled, interior and exterior walls are cracking and plaster is falling off the walls and ceilings. To restore the building up to code and make it compliant with Ohio code and the Americans with Disabilities Act, several upgrades would have to be made, including replacing all 60 windows, replacement of the roof and floors, replastering of walls and ceilings, updating drainage systems and plumbing, replacing the heating system, repairing exterior brick, repairing cracks, installing an elevator and sprinkler system, and removing all mold and mildew.

“It’s hazardous. Someone is going to get hurt. It’s an accident waiting to happen,” Williams said. ” My father and I took a look at the bricks up on the third floor tonight and they don’t look stable. As a parent, as a son, as a husband and as a community member I’m very concerned that someone may get hurt and it really terrifies me, actually.”

Sobel said he was asked to speak at the Belmont High School Alumni Banquet two weeks ago, and presented what has been discussed at the committee meetings.

“There were 125 alumni there, and I basically presented the same thing there that I presented to you guys concerning the building. Afterwards, I took 50 or 60 people on a tour of the building,” Sobel said. “They were all amazed to see what has happened to the building. At that time, they understood what I was talking about. One hundred percent of those that took the tour agreed that the building needs to come down. … It’s not the building that people come to celebrate at the alumni banquet, it’s the people they celebrate. The building is brick and mortar.”

Sobel stressed that the village is now at the point where a decision must be made about the building.

“Since we seem to have a majority consensus to raze the building, let’s have a third meeting before our next council meeting and ask people to bring ideas of what to do for a memorial,” said Councilman Shawn Bruce. “That way we can come before council with a decision and start getting bids and making plans. I like to see action — we can’t just keep talking about it.”

Davis said village officials are stewards of residents’ tax money, and must choose the wisest way to spend that money to benefit the most people. He mentioned the need to invest in parks and recreation, street repair, fire, police and EMS services rather than putting money into a badly deteriorated building.

“As elected officials we must use public funds wisely for the majority, not just to please a few people,” Davis said.

“We are not like a metropolitan area that has businesses that can donate money to keep things like this up. We are individuals and families, many on fixed incomes and we do not have large sums of money,” Sobel noted. “For them to be responsible and tied to over millions of dollars to fix this building over here, that’s unacceptable.”