Reprinted with permission from the Preston Citizen.

Eccles Foundation Gives $250,000 Pledge
Necia P. Seamons, Citizen staff writer

A $250,000 last dollar grant from the Eccles Foundation in Logan, Utah, brought fundraising efforts for the Oneida Stake Academy to $900,000, last Wednesday. Another $250,000 is needed to pay the mover to relocate the 113-year-old school to Benson Park.

Later on Wednesday, during the Preston School District board meeting, the school board opened bids to demolish the building and chose Walton, Inc., of Hayburn, Idaho. Their bid for tearing down the academy was $58,343.

The district needs to make specific arrangements for the demolition of the academy, said chairman of the board, Richard Westerberg. The board wants to save certain portions of the building for inclusion in the construction of the new library and cafeteria that will be built on the site of the academy.

Until those arrangements are made, the Friends of the Academy and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation will continue to pursue all avenues to secure funds to move the building, said Kim Wilson, president of the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation. The school board agreed to drop their plans to destroy the building if a contract to move the building could be signed before the contract to tear the building down is signed.

Pledges and donations continue to come in to help with the effort to save the academy. Also, several television and newspaper stories have been done on the building and efforts to save it.

"We feel optimistic that we'll get it done," said Wilson.