HISTORICAL CHANGE: Plans for committee organizing Waterville School memorabilia placement are transitioning with change in ownership of school property

Waterville School alumni, friends and family can help with efforts to preserve the school’s history

Following the decision by the Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors to close Waterville Elementary School at the end of this current school year, a small group of Waterville alumni formed a committee and have been working to make arrangements to make sure the trophies, pictures and other school memorabilia items from the past history of the school would be preserved.

Recently, arrangements were settled on to display a few of the trophies in a trophy case at Waukon High School, with the majority of the items displayed in a proposed area in the Waterville Public Library. To prepare for that plan, an area located within the Waterville Library building needed to be renovated to accommodate the memorabilia display. Bids were obtained to complete that project, with an estimated cost of $14,000 being revealed.

A grant application was prepared by the committee and submitted to the Allamakee County Community Foundation (ACCF) for an amount of approximately 75% of that project cost. The conditions of the grant application required the applicants to provide 25% of the project cost, and this amount was very quickly raised by generous pledges from mostly alumni of the graduating classes of the former Waterville High School. In fact, committee members say that pledge drive was very successful, resulting in an amount equal to more than half of the total amount needed for the project.

As it turned out, the committee’s grant application was not approved, but with the tremendous support received from the committee’s initial request for support from past alumni, committee members felt confident that a successful conclusion to the fund drive would meet the rest of the construction cost bid.

In the meantime, the ACSD Board made the decision to sell the Waterville school building and land, setting an April 10 date to open requested bids of purchase. The Waterville City Council, with the financial backing of additional Waterville supporters, decided to submit a bid on the school property, and the City of Waterville’s bid of $15,000 was accepted by the ACSD during that April 10 special board session.

Members of the memorabilia committee say the result of the sale of the Waterville School property to the City of Waterville has alleviated some of the initial urgency to move the trophies and other memorabilia, and very well may eventually change the initial plan to renovate the library, but say that it is still too early to know if that plan will change or not.

“Many ideas are being submitted for suggestions and some of those do suggest the trophies could remain at the current school,” the committee shared in a printed release. “This is going to depend on what can be arranged for the future use of the property. Regardless, we know that the funds to purchase the property have been donated by other commitments without using any of the funds that have been previously pledged for the renovation project.”

With the current transition in the ownership of the school property and the additional options and opportunities that transition may create, the committee says it may not have a definite idea of how much any proposed projects are going to cost at this point in time, but there is still relative certainty that there will still be costs at least equal to - and likely more - than estimates for original projects.

“Regardless of where the location is going to be, we are still committed to providing a safe and secure venue for the trophies and other pictures and items related to the history of the Waterville Consolidated School,” the committee noted. “We are committed to make sure the history is going to be preserved for generations of families that lived in those good old days of Waterville High. We want to thank everyone who made those pledges, we know that many more were just waiting for us to ask for them, and the support has been appreciated. If you are from Waterville now, or spent your school days in Waterville, you probably understand.”

Any alumni of the Waterville school, family members of alumni, or other interested parties may contact Waterville Mayor Dave Monserud or Waterville High School alumni member Rod Bloxham with inquiries on how to help the current cause.