By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Concerned about continually falling enrollment numbers at Bellmont high and middle schools, Decatur City Councilman Matt Dyer recently met with North Adams Superintendent Kim Hiatt.
“We had a really good meeting, about two hours,” Dyer said at the latest city council meeting. “I look forward to working with them on enrollment.”
In the last 10 years (2013-14 to 2023-24), Bellmont High has seen enrollment fall from 747 students to 610 this school year.
The middle school has also trended downward in the same time, 460 students to 285.
The numbers are encouraging for the elementary school, however, rising from 627 students to 684 this school year.
“A lot of it,” Dyer said of the falling numbers, “is economic development.”
Mayor Dan Rickord quickly agreed with that, pointing out that the city has a lack of affordable housing – a problem known by officials here for some time.
He said he was meeting with officials of the Housing Resource Hub, which is looking at the possibility of adding housing along the St. Marys River off First St.
Rickord said a steering committee of approximately 10 people has been established by the city.
“So it’s moving forward,” Rickord added.
City council recently approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city, the Decatur Redevelopment Commission, and the Housing Resource Hub.
The redevelopment commission put up $50,000 to hire the Fort Wayne-based Resource Hub, which specializes in developing and implementing workforce housing strategies, housing development, and home-buyer programs.
Local officials would like to develop affordable housing on city-owned land off First St., from Monroe to Jefferson streets, as well as, perhaps, the city-owned parking lot off Monroe St., near the Chamber of Commerce office.
Officials here are moving on the subject now as they would like to get together some concrete plans to be used to seek a state READI grant.
“We have a desperate need for apartments in Decatur, a study showed that,” redevelopment officials recently told council.