Aging Byram school to be put up for sale at no-minimum auction

BYRAM — FOR SALE: Old schoolhouse in Sussex County most recently used as a school for kids with special needs. Must be used for educational purposes, civic use or as a church. TLC needed. Yours for the taking.
There’s little that Byram Township Manager Joe Sabatini would like to see more than the sale of the old Byram Consolidated School. But after a frustrating two-year search for a new owner, Sabatini has come up empty.
He’s so desperate that he’s now willing to give the school away — for free — excluding the $800 for the township’s legal fees.
Since it costs an estimated $40,000 annually to maintain the building, even giving it away would be a good deal for the town, he said.
"We’re looking for it to become an active part of the community again. That would be the best-case scenario at the end of the day," he said.
"If someone bought it for $1, I’d be willing to give that person $1 to take it."
After a private auctioneer recently told the town he wasn’t interested in handling the sale, the township council voted last month to hold its own auction for the two-story building. The as-is, no-minimum auction will be held June 13 at 10 a.m. at town hall.
A key obstacle in trying to unload the school, said Sabatini, has been the fine print listed in the property’s original deed: "The property must be used for educational, religious or municipal purposes."
One potential buyer who met the deed-restriction requirements was a local church that now rents out a catering hall on Route 206 for its Sunday services. Church officials looked at the 76-year-old school on Lackawanna Drive, but ultimately decided the two-story building was too big and the long-term repairs would be too costly.
"It would need an elevator for us to use and it’s going to need some renovations, maybe a roof. The heating system is old," said Pastor Luis Rodriguez, leader of the 75-member Byram Christian Fellowship Church.
"It’s a good opportunity, but after looking at everything we did not have the means to do it. It was too pricey for a church our size," he said.
Built in 1936 on 5.2 acres donated by the late Thomas and Ella Sweeney, the original school contained approximately 6,400 square feet with two classrooms, office and bathrooms on the upper floor and a large assembly space on the lower floor.
As the township flourished following World War II, additions to the school that added another 18,000 square feet and 14 more classrooms were built in 1951 and 1957.
Sussex County historian Wayne McCabe said the Byram Consolidated School was originally built after the state adopted a law that was designed to consolidate the hundreds of rural old one-room schoolhouses in the state into more centralized facilities with grade-specific classrooms.
"This law effectively eliminated over 50 small one-room schoolhouses throughout Sussex County, while requiring municipalities to design and build new and modern schools," said McCabe, adding the new centralized schools also required busing for students who had previously walked to school.


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