Levy County Commissioners are back to the drawing board on finding location for 93-year-old school

OTTER CREEK, Fla. (WCJB) -Levy County commissioners are meeting today to discuss the new location of a longstanding school in Otter Creek, that forced staff and clients to move to a temporary location.

“I think that it’s a little disheartening just because I feel like we’re back to the drawing board, “ said assistant executive director Sharon Wolfe. “However, feeling good that all the commissioners and the county seems very supportive of us and what we do. So, I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Staff and clients at The Arc of Levy County School were moved to a temporary location after it was closed by the state due to dangerous conditions. The 92-year-old school building had issues with electricity, heating, air, and flooring.

It’s a home away from home for mentally disabled adults. The Arc offers adult basic education and other skills to teach them to be self-sufficient.

“The county was going to donate us property for us to build a new facility as our old building was so old,” said Wolfe. “The funds to be able to fix it up is way beyond our reach being a non-profit organization. So, we just did the sale and with the sale, we received our seed money to be able to begin the process.”

Wolfe said finding a new facility is beyond the surface.

“To me, it means giving these amazing and deserving clients something that they deserve. This, for a lot of them this is their life, this is all they will have and just to be able to give them something is meaningful”

Levy County Commissioners are met at 9 a.m. at the Levy County Government Center in Bronson to discuss where the new location will be.

“They did bring up talking about 10,000 square foot as a good number to start which we definitely agree with, said program director Joesph Wolfe. “It’s something that is feasible as far as having the space. However, on the 1.56 acres, I don’t know if they’re considering that fact that we would be able to build that much square footage, having a parking lot, have the easement that they were talking about and having a driveway.”

Wolfe said they are a non-profit organization and they depend on donations because the seed money is not enough to build a new facility.

So, they’ll be hosting an ice cream social event on June 10th and they currently have an active raffle on ‘the Arc of Levy County’ Facebook page to help raise money to find their new and current clients a new place to call home.

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