The long-anticipated remodeling of Clancy Old Red Schoolhouse’s public restrooms is the latest in a series of projects headed by the passionate volunteers of the Clancy Old Red Schoolhouse Foundation and heavily funded by a community that heavily relies on the beloved and historic building.
The nonprofit foundation was established in 2011 “to raise funds for the preservation, maintenance, beautification and operation” of the historic building, according to its mission statement. Since then it’s methodically and patiently undertaken projects intended to shore up the facility, which opened in 1898, was expanded in the 1950s and currently houses the Jefferson County Museum, the Clancy Library, a Jefferson County Health Department satellite office and a community meeting room that’s used hundreds of times a year.
According to Gary Carlson, the Foundation’s president, the nonprofit’s contributions towards these projects have totalled about $30,000 — all of it “nonpublic” — sourced funds, he noted — through 2019. Prior projects have included replacing gutters, windows and the museum’s front steps; adding handicap accessibility; landscaping to improve drainage; and increasing ceiling insulation in an older part of the building.
