EDGEWOOD, N.M. — Edgewood is suing its own school district in order to preserve an elementary school.

“It’s the oldest standing government building in the town,” Edgewood Mayor Ken Brennan said. “Those are the things you want to preserve. You don’t want to just tear it down and say, well, you know, 10, 15 years, why did we do that?”

Edgewood Elementary has been closed for two years.

“It basically boils down to the fact that here’s this building that was paid for by taxpayer money, and it’s sitting, not being used by anybody,” Brennan said. “That building has so much, so much great potential to be used. The school district was totally ignoring all of it.”

The building is owned by the Moriarty-Edgewood School District. They want to tear it down instead of renovating it, saying it costs the same amount.

Commissioner Jerry Powers argues the school is a piece of Edgewood history, so the town is suing the school district in hopes of saving the building.

“The buildings were sitting there since 2022 without any maintenance, the roof is leaking, and they’re deteriorating, so they need to be preserved,” Powers said. “They’re so important to our history and culture in New Mexico, according to the Legislature, that we can even go to the point of asking a judge to allow us to purchase, if they’re not a willing purchaser, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Brennan and Powers also say they know the building can be fixed because it’s something they’ve already done. One of the buildings is currently leased out by the town and is the home of their town hall.

“You’ve seen our town hall here, this, we renovated this building,” Powers said. “It’s a really a waste of taxpayer money, in addition to the historic value to knock down perfectly good buildings that can be used.”

While the north building is partly used by the public with the library, Powers said the community needs more space which could be solved if they own or lease the south building.

The town tried purchasing the second building but says the school district never answered them. The district then included both buildings in the demolition plan.

“I was flabbergasted,” Brennan said. “As you know, this building here, there’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s being utilized constantly. Personally, I know, you know, I don’t, I think that maybe that was sort of like a dig at us.”

KOB 4 reached out to the Moriarty-Edgewood School District, but they weren’t able to set a time to meet. We will share their response here if we receive one.