The Rippey school building had a reprieve from demolition crews and was still standing for a 93rd first day of school. The building, which has not housed students in recent years, was scheduled to be demolished during the summer. The reprieve was only a matter of scheduling. The building will be razed most likely in September.
Environmental Services of Iowa completed removing the asbestos in the building in June. Lansing Brothers of Fort Dodge had the low bid at $95,600 to do the actual demolition. Of that, the Greene County school district, which now owns the building, will receive up to $21,000 through an Iowa DNR grant, depending on how much material is diverted from landfills.
Lansing Brothers is expected to arrive in Rippey soon, and then to spend two weeks salvaging what it can from the building. The contract gives Lansing Brothers salvage rights, although the company is agreeable to providing some brick and other items to the school district as memorabilia.
The first step in the actual demolition of the building will be to separate the 1921 three-story portion from the gymnasium. A new heating system has been added to the gym, allowing it to remain as a self-contained building. The gym will soon be renamed the William and Mabel Wisecup Gymnasium in honor of East Greene benefactors Bill and Mabel Wisecup of Rippey. The gym will be used for sub-varsity practices and games.
Demolition of the three-story structure will go quickly once it begins, taking less than a week.
The demolition is being paid for with funds the East Greene school board earmarked for that purpose. The initial plan was to have the building razed before the East Greene board dissolved with the reorganization of EG and Jefferson-Scranton into the Greene County schools.
