Demolition of old school brings up mixed emotions, safety concerns

LEIGHTON TWP, Mich. (WOOD) — A building that some residents called the center of their community is being demolished.

Moline Elementary School, formerly known as the Moline Agricultural School, opened in 1937 but has not operated as a school since the early 2000s.

“Our families and generations of our kids have gone here,” said lifelong Moline resident Diane Wolf. “We had Christmas parties there and reunion parties and when the parades were going, we had shows there that we dressed up in centennial clothing and did stage shows and it was just a heart of our community.”

Wolf stopped by the site Tuesday evening and picked up two bricks to have as keepsakes.

“We have bricks from everywhere in our lives and we put them in our yard and it’s just something to think about when you look at them,” Wolf explained.

The ease with which people could walk onto the site brought up safety concerns for at least one man, whose family owned the building for several years before selling it to the township in 2022.

“There’s a lot of piles of bricks and all it takes is one of those to slide and a little kid gets hurt, or an adult gets hurt,” said Ryan Austin. “There’s no way to stop me from going in and playing softball right now if I want. ‘Hey, that’s cool. Let’s go take Instagram pictures and stand on a pile of bricks’ and all of a sudden that wall falls down, and you’re dealing with big problems,” Austin theorized.

When News 8 arrived at the site on Wednesday afternoon, which sits on 144th Avenue east of Division Street, there was nothing stopping anyone from walking right into the demolition area.

“I will be the first to say I think it should be the responsibility of the person getting hurt if they’re where they’re not supposed to be, but I know every construction site you drive past these days has some sort of a fence up. It looks like there is one no trespassing sign in the front of the building, but if you came from the back, you’d never see that,” Austin said.

When his family owned the building, however, they were required to have liability insurance, a safety fence, privacy fence and tarps so no one could see inside. He said even those measures didn’t keep people from trespassing.

“We had kids out back getting hurt and were told that we’d be responsible for it if it happened,” Austin recalled.

He added that he’s disappointed to see that those same rules haven’t applied to a potentially dangerous demolition site.

“It seems to be going unchecked right now.”

In a statement to News 8, Leighton Township Clerk Rachel Fennema said:

“The demolition of the building is being carried out by Pro-Tech Environmental, Inc. and is compliant with all safety requirements as specified by the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy.”

After days of demolition, it wasn’t until an hour after News 8 arrived on site that crews finally put a fence up in the front.

One of the Pro-Tech employees said that some of the bricks would be placed outside the fence so anyone who wants to hold on to a piece of history can do so safely.

As for future plans for the building, the township said it’s excited to be able to add to the green space of one of its only parks. The Moline Softball Association hosts competitive fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball leagues during the summer months and the addition of the space is expected to enhance the park property.

Other plans being discussed for the site include additional parking, updates to facilities and the possibility of additional recreational activities.

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