It's hard to believe that, after years of telling the public the former Clay School in East Wheeling needed to meet the wrecking ball, City Council now is being asked to spend $27,100 of your money so a firm can provide a "conceptual redevelopment plan" for the site.
The matter made it onto council's agenda this past week after Betsy Sweeny, Wheeling Heritage's director of Heritage Programming and a homeowner in East Wheeling, made a pitch for the city to seek an outside firm to provide "professional input and technical analysis" for Clay School.
City taxpayers own the fortress-like structure that sits adjacent to the J.B. Chambers Memorial Recreation Park.
Now Wheeling Heritage wants city taxpayers to spend $27,100 for a consultation on a building that the city had planned to most likely demolish. That doesn't seem like a prudent use of tax dollars.
Is Clay School worth saving? Possibly -- but that's going to come with a price tag in the millions of dollars. The city already is spread thin financially with all of the public investments under way around town.
As we've noted previously, not all buildings are worth saving. Clay School, in the eyes of many, has been on that list for years. Council should deny the funding request.