After years of inaction, Mantua Center School activists say it’s time to put the building to use

Front row left to right: Carole Pollard, Lynn Harvey
Back row left to right: Terri Vechery, Mark Hall, Nora Brant. Gina Schlegel/The Portager

After years of inaction, Mantua Center School activists say it’s time to put the building to use

- Lyndsey Brennan

Community groups in Mantua Township have invested thousands of hours of their time into turning the Mantua Center School into a vibrant community center: volunteering physical labor, writing grants and proposals, hosting fundraisers and chairing committees. 

Yet two decades after the township acquired the building and at least nine years after the building was cleared for occupancy, it sits mostly empty. Many of those community members say it’s because the township trustees, two of whom have been in office for about a decade, have not followed through on their promises to make use of it.

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