Decades ago, students piled into the Foltz School. Now, thanks to a dedicated group of people, the building, located near the Jennings Environmental Education Center, will again be used for educating.

This is precisely the kind of preservation we were talking about last week when we wrote about the unfortunate, but likely fate of the former Bantam Jeep production building. The birthplace of the Jeep is in such a state of disrepair that the structure won’t be able to be salvaged without an awful lot of money — tens of millions, according to Mark Gordon, the county’s chief of economic development and planning.

We wrote that more people needed to concern themselves with the preservation of places with historical value to prevent such loss from happening elsewhere.

A week later, you can look no further than Brady Township for an ideal example of preservation.

According to Nancy Nalepa, the renovation of Foltz School, which is currently in progress, began more than a decade ago. The school house was shown off this past weekend during Celebrate the Bloom at Jennings.

Nalepa, project co-chair, said that in 2010, the manager of Jennings got funding through the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Those dollars addressed an immediate issue — a tree growing up through the building was causing structural and foundation issues.

That money did not ultimately “fix” the building in its entirety, but it saved the building from getting to a state of disrepair until other funding was available.

Volunteers stepped up. They replaced the wiring, ceiling and roof. Then, a $100,000 grant from the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition came along.

More roadblocks followed, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is not easy to preserve a historic building. It takes initiative. It takes money. It takes people who care enough to overcome the hurdles thrown their way.

Come fall, the Foltz School will be used as a classroom for Jennings.

We’re thrilled to cover this project and applaud those who have worked to preserve this building.

— TL